Live Webinar of the Benefits of an S&S Coupled Bike including a complete packing demonstration

If you’re interested in what it takes to pack and unpack an S&S coupled bike, we’re hosting a very informative live webinar on Wednesday, April 26 at 7pm EST.

S&S coupled bikes can be decoupled to fit in a travel case that checks as a regular bag on a flight and is small enough to fit in small European taxi cabs.

This is what it looks like when a bike is in its Co-Motion Co-Pilot case, without the protective padding wrapped on all of the tubes of the frame.

We’re walking through the process of packing and unpacking S&S bikes and discussing considerations for component selection, and how to manage the process.

There will be time for Q&A for those who have a travel bike with questions and those who are considering purchasing a travel bike and want to know more about whether S&S couplers on their new frame is right for them.

Webinar Agenda 7pm-8:30pm EST

• The mechanics of taking a bike apart and how to put a bike back together at a level for anyone who is not a bike mechanic to understand

• The tools and supplies necessary

• Tips and Tricks to making the process faster

• Thoughts on component selection and frame features that make the process easier and faster

• Q&A for you to ask questions whether you own an S&S coupled bike or if you are considering the purchase of a new S&S coupled bike.

Please RSVP below! We’ll send you connection details no later than 5pm Wednesday, April 26. This session will be hosted over Zoom.

RSVP to Attend

If you won’t be able to attend, please RSVP and add a comment in the text area letting us know so we can share the recording with you when it’s available.

Riding the Paris Roubaix and How You Can Feel the Cobbles for Yourself

The Paris Roubaix women’s race happened yesterday and today is the men’s race. It’s always an exciting race and it’s got an incredible history. We wanted to share one person’s story of visiting the Paris Roubaix both as a participant of the amateur version of the race and as a spectator of the pro race to highlight the opportunity open to everyone to be part of a future edition of this whole experience!

Patria and Rob of Ride Headquarters attended the 2015 edition of the race. This is Patria’s account, in her words:

The cobbles of the Paris Roubaix are punishing but very special, all 30+ miles of them as Patria discovered via participating in the Paris-Roubaix Challenge.

Rob and I decided that it would be really neat to see a spring classics pro race and it didn’t take us long to choose this one to attend. Might as well start with they say is the hardest, toughest, and the one with the richest history. I wanted to get to know this race, and the people who make it what it is, for the first time. I got so much more than I ever expected in two days.

A close-up of a typical cobbled sector.

The Paris-Roubaix Challenge works like this: ~4,500 people from all over the world, nothing required skill-wise to compete, get to ride most of the same roads the pros do, just a day before the men’s pro race. Now that there’s a women’s version, the amateur event starts earlier than the women’s race so the riders are done prior to the women’s finish enabling riders to watch the pro women come into the finish if they wish.

Amateur riders bump over each of the 27 sectors of pavé just like the pros. The amateur ride is ~100 km shorter than the pro race at 105 miles total. The pro race begins in Compiégne, not actually Paris. The first ~113 km of the pro race are all or mostly smooth tarmac, so amateurs don’t miss out on the pro pavé experience.

The whole experience began Friday, the day before the Paris Roubaix Challenge, when we took a train from Paris to the modern town of Lille, France. There we me the head La Fuga Cycling guide, Richard, who was quick to greet us, and make introductions all around. He loaded all of us in vans (there were quite a few who'd arrived around time we did) and shuttled us the 1+ hour drive to Saint-Quentin.  

The guys were friendly and it quickly became apparent that I was the only woman in the 18-person group. That wasn’t particularly surprising considering the nature of the trip, nor was it an issue for me or any of the guys. Rob and I got our bikes assembled in 30 minutes and went out for a quick warm-up/shake-down ride in Saint Quentin.

My Seven Evergreen moments after I assembled it in Saint Quentin. Its travel case is small, easy to fit in small European taxi cabs and roll onto trains and down rough roads. I paid nothing to the airlines to fly my luggage for this trip.

We traveled with our bikes because our they are practically made for the Paris Roubaix with its typical conditions of mud, rain, and rough riding. This is what our Seven Evergreens handle best, and they are fast for normal road riding conditions, too.

For the record, we were riding full titanium frames with carbon disc forks, one layer of Fizik performance bar tape, I was on 28c Continental Grand Prix 4-Season slick tires, Rob rode 27c Challenge Paris-Roubaix open tubular clincher tires. I initially set my tire pressure to 75 psi but let some air out of the front tire after I discovered how slick and ride-threatening wet cobbles are. 

At a McDonalds stop during the Paris Roubaix Challenge. Where else to go for a clean bathroom in the beautiful french countryside?

Saturday morning, the day of the Challenge came fast. Having other people deal with the bikes and our stuff took away the tiredness that, had we had to worry about the logistics, would have threatened me having the energy to complete the ride. After two perfectly sunny, 70 degree days in France, the day of our Paris-Roubaix came as a proper Paris-Roubaix should: it started raining on the drive to the start in Busigny and the air temperature was chilly: in the low 40s. The weather forecast had called for <1mm of rain to fall in the early morning only. It turned out to be wrong.

The amateurs start early, around 7am. A timing chip was employed to keep track of each rider’s overall time and the time for three cobbled sections that were timed separately. Out of the 4,500 riders, very few were competing for the win, but few riders took it easy out there.

The morning light was soft and everything was just a little obscured from the light rain that was falling. The mood was calm among participants, if a bit muted from quiet nervousness. 

The route is ~13 km of smooth pavement, then the sectors begin at fairly even intervals, for usually ~.5 to 2.5km distances each. In between sectors is silky smooth pavement that I felt was the carrot getting me through the cobbles. Feeling the immediate relief offered by the smoothness all but took away any discomfort left in my body from the previous cobbled section.  

This was the smoothest cobbled road of the day!

The roughest and most difficult sector for my body was the first one. My feet instantly went numb and I was wondering if shaken baby syndrome applies for adults riding the Paris Roubaix. Is that like getting a million little concussions in a day? If it was, it was worth whatever brain cells had to be sacrificed for the experience. Fortunately, my feet came back to life within a few kilometers and were fine for the rest of the ride. Some believed that everything was harder and more painful before relaxing on the pavé. I’m sure that makes a big difference. Don’t steer too much, just let the bike do its thing – but hang onto the bars so they don’t get thrown from your control. It’s a careful balance that requires relaxing. Since it’s important to power through the cobbles, standing up and relieving saddle pressure isn’t much of an option.

A random rider out there during the Challenge.

I didn’t end up with any other physical pain aside from leg tiredness by the end and a little sit-bone discomfort. I had doubled up my bike shorts because I didn’t want to risk a bad day due to saddle issues.

After the ride, a quick survey of the tour group reveled one guy had a blister the size of half of his palm and most people felt they'd aged by a few decades in a single day. 

Throughout each sector, I passed people who’d flatted on that section. Once the cobbles met up with the smooth road, there was always a group of people on the tarmac – some awaiting their friends so they could re-group, but there were often 10 or more people involved in changing their flat tires or sorting out some kind of mechanical issue with their bikes.

Rob flying over the cobbles, he’s a classics rider through and through.

Neither Rob nor I had a flat all day. Most flats happened from pinch flats, and, dare I make a big assumption based on stories that I heard: most of the tires that experienced flats were narrower than 28mm because they were more susceptible to pinching since they had to be run at lower pressures so as to keep as much rubber on the road as possible. Wider tires can be run at lower pressures without risking the pinch so that’s what makes them safer in a Paris Roubaix situation. Of course, I’m not talking about the pro race where the speeds are so much higher on those pointy rocks.

Someone described each sector as having its own personality. It’s true. Some cobbles looked easy to ride because they looked smooth but turned out to be very rough and extremely challenging. On other roads, the crown – or the high center of the road that’s typically smoother than the rest of the road, was as smooth and easy as it looked. But sometimes the crown turned into a tiny point that felt impossible to keep the bike teetered on while being jarred through the sector.

When the cobbles are wet, they are slick. Some feel just like smooth ice. The slickness may have been some kind of organic slime. Or it's just that the mud is made up of very fine dirt. It took quite a few sectors to know how to ride the cobbles. The moment a rider would feel comfortable, the next sector would throw a curve ball proving any theories the rider had developed up to that point as being perfectly flawed.

Most of the dirt, mud, and dust on the route was a high percentage of animal manure considering farms border much of the route. Ewwww. We saw the pros breathing in large dust clouds when they were racing the next day which was warm and dry with their speeds and close proximity to each other. I heard that the pro racers tend to be sick for a day or two after a dry day on the cobbles. That is a lot of nasty dust they end up ingesting.

Weather

Throughout the day I found the temperature to be quite comfortable. There were three distinct rains that hit during the day, interspersed with strong winds at times, and even sun at the very end of the ride. I stayed comfortable with a wind vest that I kept on the whole ride and a rain jacket – that I took on and off at least 3 times. I’m certain the only conditions I couldn’t have handled as well would have been a hot, sunny day. That would have been hard.

Hell of the North

Paris Roubaix isn’t called the “Hell of the North” because it’s such a grueling day on the bike. That name came from a scouting trip post-World War I that took Paris-Roubaix race organizers through battlefields that were heavily scarred from the war. Hell refers to the war and what happened there.

One such battlefield in the race (I'm not sure if it was a battlefield in World War I, it was a mining area) is the Arenberg Forest otherwise known as the Tranchée d’Arenberg. I understand the road was originally built by Napoleon. This is the most anxiously anticipated sector by racers. It can make or break one’s day. It comes at ~63 km in our ride (so ~163km for pros) which means there are still many sectors and ~100 km to go after it’s done. But a crash or mechanical is likely to take a contender and have him turn into a chaser for the rest of the long day. The cobbles are more irregular in this sector and there is no gutter.

After I rode Arenberg, I took photos of others trying to get through it in tact.

It wasn’t raining when I entered Arenberg, but the cobbles were drenched and the slickest feeling cobbles of the whole day – by a lot. People were crashing left and right. An ambulance was attending to a rider just 50 feet or less into the sector when I started riding into it.

I found my bike slipping around underneath me. At first, I was unnerved and slowed waaaay down. Then, as I realized the only option was to ride it, I got more daring and pedaled faster. By the end, it was obvious that letting the bike slip around, staying off the brakes completely, and keeping the pedals going around evenly was the secret to staying upright. The worst part was worrying about the others who were crashing or riding the line I wanted.

That was the only frightening part of the day. The next hardest pavé sector was sector 4, I believe this is Carrefour de l'Arbre. That was the last timed sector and one of the longest, if not the longest. This one is where it felt like everything came together. At that point, finishing was likely and I wanted to leave all of my energy on the route. I rode it the hardest of any of them and it felt quite good to come out the other end, greeted by the smooth tarmac.

Elevation

The route was relatively flat at ~2,000 ft of elevation gain for the whole day. There is no way we could ride that far in Massachusetts and not log at least 4,000 ft. It's hard to describe the pleasantness of the silky-smooth roads that gradually twisted and turned through many small towns, past lucky homes who get front-row seats and through countless fields. I was delighted to see so many towns and even be greeted by locals who had come out to cheer for those of us doing the amateur race. Women riders got extra loud cheers, it was cool.

The conclusion of the Paris Roubaix Challenge, like the pro race, ends in a lap around the Roubaix Velodrome. How awesome to finish such a long, hard day in such a place – and, amazingly, in the warm sun of France, too. This velodrome has hosted a long history of cycling superstars racing in it; it's played the host to the end of the Paris Roubaix since 1942.

One can’t ride this velodrome without feeling cold chills throughout the entire lap. This is me finishing my ride, feeling so great from the whole experience.

The showers are something everyone makes a big deal about and I was more than ready for a good, hot shower. After looking for them and inquiring as to where the women’s showers were to be found, I was educated on French tradition/culture/whatever you want to call it: there were no separate women’s showers.

The fabled showers. Photo courtesy of Inrng.com

The large cement room with partial cement walls – with no doors or curtains – full of showering men, was where I was going to have to shower if I wanted one.

I couldn’t get the “American” out of me to suck it up and go in. There are ample photos of the showers on the internet. I wonder if I missed something by not going in, but I’m also perfectly okay with having enjoyed a hot shower back in the hotel after our hour drive to return there from Roubaix.

Though I thought the day was over at that point, little did I know what awaited us. We arrived late to join the group at dinner at 9pm (my hot, not-rushed shower took priority over everything).

We inhaled our food. I found myself eating an admittedly tasty slab of meat because there were no protein options for vegetarians; I had to have protein after a carb-rich day at the feed stations. The French don’t understand vegetarianism similar to most Italians, and I don’t expect them to. I had to stray from a veggie diet a few times in France for the sake of my sanity.

It’s at this point that the day had a twist thrown in so unexpected and wonderful, it made for the ideal ending that we couldn’t have ever imagined.

While we were eating, we looked up and two gentlemen were standing in the doorway to our private room in the restaurant. They both seemed confident, I assumed one of them was likely the owner of La Fuga. But who was this other guy? A couple of people at the table looked shocked, but I didn’t know why. Both of the gentlemen  left for a moment – long enough for us to learn that Magnus Backstedt was joining us for dinner!

I’ve heard enough about Magnus to know that he was one of the top riders in the sport when he’d retired. He commanded respect from the peloton and from fans. He also won Paris-Roubaix in 2004.

Conversation with Magnus Backstedt, quite the surprise right on the heels of feeling the cobbles for ourselves. Photo by La Fuga guide, Fabrizio.

Since we were the last ones to dinner, we sat on the side with all of the open chairs. This meant the opportunity to talk with Magnus about the Paris-Roubaix. I got to ask him many questions and hear how he did it. Had we been at dinner with him the previous day, before doing the Paris Roubaix Challenge, the conversation would have had different meaning. Being fresh off of the cobbles and hearing what it was like to win the Paris-Roubaix and how he did it, made for very rich, interesting conversation.

It was awesome to see both of Magnus’ daughters out there racing Paris Roubaix’s women’s pro race yesterday! Back when I did this challenge, a women’s Paris Roubaix race didn’t exist.

Magnus was down-to-earth. He really wanted to talk about his days of pro racing, he wanted to offer complete answers to our questions. He loves bike racing, and it’s pretty obvious he’s smart. He knows that winning comes down to being the best prepared on race day which means months and years of product testing, riding the cobbles many times in advance, thinking about every aspect of the race. There’s a fair amount of luck that influences the final result, especially with a crash-marred, unplannable race like Paris Roubaix. However, Magnus maximized his chances.

He told us of how he would train: he motopaced into the infamous Arenberg Forest hitting the cobbles at 60-70km per hour (much higher than race pace) in order to discover the best line to take. The best line shows up more obviously at that break-neck speed.

He told us of how he worked with a bike manufacturer to build a full-titanium bike with oversized tubes in order to have the ideal ride qualities. It was nice to hear him say that he felt that it was obvious that titanium was the best material for the task: that it would most effectively damp the vibrations of the road while being stiff enough to propel him to victory. He showed me a photo of the bike: it was painted to look like a Bianchi, but underneath was titanium. I believe he said it’s now in a museum somewhere.

This is Magnus’ Paris Roubaix winning bike. Photo courtesy of Bianchiusa.com.

He discussed how many different forks he tested out in training to select the right one. He studied each sector of the route so he’d know each one and the best line for each well going in to the race. The time and energy he spent working with his sponsors and trying to push the standards of the time led him to be the first racer to ride wider tires in the race: 27c , to be exact. He said he was flatting frequently with the narrower ones, but the 27c tires survived the punishment of the race. I asked him about tire width, I had to know.

Another question I had was about bar tape. Many people doubled up the bar tape on their handlebars to protect their hands. His answer to keep his hands in tact so as to be able to lift the large cobble trophy that the winner receives: pipe insulation placed at just the right spots and bar tape went over that.

Magnus was a 207 lb rider, and he stands 6’ 4" tall. The perfect product tester! He learned how to increase his power without reducing his weight since losing weight yielded hits to his power output.

Here is “Big Maggy” discussing his Paris-Roubaix win.

A moment after I stopped recording is when he concluded by saying, “The race win was special – very special.” He paused to allow a moment of reflection and his eyes glistened with the emotion that his win 11 years ago still conjures within him.

Magnus was interested in how the day had gone for us and was an excellent speaker. He’s featured as a commentator on EuroSport and had just covered a race in the Basque country earlier in the day. He’s the real deal; we got to chat with him at the perfect time in the most ideal circumstances.

That was the day. Awake at 5am, asleep by midnight. More ride experiences squeezed into a single day than any other day of my life up to that point. Then the next day we watched the pros show us how they did it in the dusty, dry conditions under the sun. It was awesome to get to be part of thousands of fans out there, see the speeds of the pros, the mud on their sweaty faces from the dust, and watch cycling history being made.

Tour Seven Cycles in Watertown, MA

Join us for a group tour of Seven Cycles next Friday, February 10, 2023 at 2:00pm!

Seven Cycles is located in Watertown, Massachusetts and they build incredible bikes within their walls. There is no bike builder more focused on offering the best experience for each rider than Seven Cycles on the planet. There is also no frame designer with deeper knowledge of frame design and bike building materials than Seven. Few builders test their designs, Seven invests in testing to be sure what they build will withstand the demands of the most avid riders.

This deep interest in the riding experience and frame building knowledge translates to every single bike being the very best bike for each rider. We regularly receive comments from new bike owners who have been blown away by their bikes. These some of the countless rave reviews that we’ve received via email just in the past few weeks:

“I truly could not be happier with my new bike.  I am still trying to figure out how to describe the ride - the bike feels like it is floating or gliding over, rather than rolling on, the road.  The bike just soaks up bad road surfaces, and yet feels very responsive and agile.” - HH, Evergreen SL

“The bike feels magical. I'm in love.” - JM, Axiom S

“I love my bike…best bike ever!” - LC, Evergreen S

“Best money I have ever spent.” -AO, Treeline SL

Seven is a company full of bike building professionals, many of whom have been in the bike building profession for over 30 years. This is the place where great bikes of all kinds come to life and many new innovations in bike building have been developed over the years.

See the steps of fabricating frames and watch how frames go from a Frame Specification to a complete frame ready to be built into a bike on this very informative tour. The tour is 45 minutes to an hour and includes time for questions and answers.

Children who are able to wear safety glasses are invited to attend as well.

Please RSVP below so we can email you directions! We’ll email all who RSVP by 5pm the day before the tour with directions to Seven and parking information. There is ample free parking available near Seven.

RSVP here to attend & if you can’t make it, let us know so we let you know of future tours!

Race Report: Fat Pursuit 200km

by Patria Vandermark

It’s a shift in thinking that my “A” race for 2023 has already happened this year with my participation in the Fat Pursuit in Island Park, Idaho. While it’s raining and dreary outside in Massachusetts at this moment, I’m still on a post-race high, feeling healthier than I can ever remember feeling and my heart is full.

Considering it’s a mess of a weekend and there’s too much to tell, I’m offering my full story and invite you to read the part you have time to enjoy. Or just look at the photos!

This is the winter wonderland where Fat Pursuit is based in Island Park, Idaho. It’s part of the Yellowstone Ecosystem. Photo by Rob Vandermark. Most photos contained here have been provided by Rob.

The Fat Pursuit is an ultra endurance winter race in its 10th year. There are two routes: a 60k and 200km route. They run through a remote area that gets feet of snow in December every year. The promoters, renowned life-long ultra-endurance racers and advocates, Jay Petervary and Tracy Petervary, have created this event as a challenge and learning opportunity to all from those new to this world to the very best, most experienced ultra and winter athletes.

On paper, I look like an unlikely participant at Fat Pursuit. I get cold faster than most people (I’m sitting in a 70 degree house right now feeling cold, my toes are nearly numb) and I find perfect contentment with riding my gravel and road bikes. I don’t feel I need to prove anything to myself or to others, that doesn’t drive me. Why would I go to a cold, seemingly harsh environment to take on my first-ever ultra endurance event that involves making water from snow to stay hydrated and sleeping in the snow?!

As ready as I could be the night before the Fat Pursuit start.

I’m always overly anxious for Boston to get snow since it’s my very favorite landscape to ride, so traveling to an already-made winter wonderland is a nice solution to scratch my snow itch! Riding on snow makes me smile, and it is pure joy for me. Riding relatively slowly while pedaling fairly hard is warm, it’s a chance to chat with other riders, see a world blanketed in pristine flakes is always pure peace and beauty, and when I crash it means falling into a snow pile like a kid. I always giggle, even when I’m alone, when I fall into the snow. It’s simple fun without anyone taking themselves too seriously and I certainly don’t take myself seriously. A longer event means doing what I love for longer. More snow!

A good substitute for snow riding is beach riding! We’ve had to make this sub when the trails are too wet to ride, it’s allowed for quality Fat Pursuit training near Boston.

I need to be driven to train. Work has taken precedence in my life for the past 11 years. Working in the bike industry running a bike shop doesn’t allow more time on a bike, only more time near bikes. I’ve traded fitness for work, it’s the easy thing to do. I love my job so it’s simpler to work hard than train hard. The older I get, the more obvious the importance of keeping these two balanced for maintaining health into later life. Work and fulfillment from that also has a good place in there. Balance is the key.

Ride Headquarters hosted a Brutiful 100-mile fat bike ride in November which served as a great training ride and pretty spectacular day on the bike on the Cape.

I’ve learned that with some level of efficiency, one can train plenty for a huge event like this while not sacrificing work and other life commitments. I’ve found so much joy in training since these rides involve time with friends and good people, every single ride makes me feel great with after-ride endorphins, and I’ve stopped making excuses for not going out or getting on the trainer since fear of not being fit enough to get through this race is just enough motivation to get over myself when it’d be too easy to let other things distract me.

Fat Pursuit kindly helped me feel new to cycling again in a welcome way while absolutely terrifying me with its challenge.

I couldn’t believe just how much I had to learn and how many opportunities for optimization there are. Being fit is a small part of the “success” equation. Sure, the person who wins the race is very fit, but if that person brought the wrong gear, there’s no way they’re making it to the finish line. Here’s how the race went down for those at the pointy end of the competition.

Edyn, 13, was the youngest rider at Fat Pursuit. This is Edyn coming in to checkpoint 2 smiling and not all that many hours later, finish in 8th place overall. It was awesome to see him right at home at the pre-race meeting and taking on the challenge by training hard, likely better prepared than many of the adults.

As I got into researching the right gear to take, how to dress, how to bivy in the winter (sleeping in a sleeping bag contained in a bivy bag which is smaller than a tent), where to pack my stuff on the bike, etc. the more I got into it. I’ve never winter camped so there was a lot that was new for me. The research was fun! There’s no one right answer on almost any single topic. Each person gets to figure out the proper setup with no way to know what’s “right” until race day.

I ran out of time practicing bivy sleeping before the trip so I set it all up in our room in the lodge and spent the night before the Fat Pursuit began. Maybe I was just really tired, but I did sleep exceptionally well.

Preparation got progressively more fun as I learned more and this caused me more curiosity as to what other people would be using for their setups. I watched MANY YouTube videos on winter camping, winter bikepacking, people’s previous Fat Pursuit and Ididerod experiences.

I am grateful to have been able to ask questions of a number of people who have done the race before and who are winter campers. They were very helpful with all kinds of recommendations such as which bike grips to use and how to expedite melting snow over the stove. Nan Pugh spent an hour and a half with me on the phone allowing me to pick her brain a couple of months in advance of Fat Pursuit. She didn’t know me from Adam prior to that call.

I have a huge Google spreadsheet full of notes of advice, many tabs for all of the aspects. Food, clothes, gear, bags, sleeping system, water boiling system, hydration, eye wear, bike setup, the list goes on and on. It’s still growing. I now have a “what to do differently next time” tab.

For example, there are numerous camp stoves out there. Some that work well in the summer won’t boil water in a sub-zero situation. Everything needs to be as lightweight as possible. Since there is so much gear, the grams add up fast. This is a good time to be a weight weenie on the small stuff, but don’t freak out when the scale tips at ~30-50 lbs of gear/water/food!

I practiced turning snow into water when we got to Idaho, a test I couldn’t do back home. I discovered that the trowel I’d been gifted from doing the virtual 60k Fat Pursuit Covid edition a couple of years ago (where I rode near home all day), worked great in getting snow into the pot!

Also pictured: I’m wearing both puffy jackets and puffy pants to stay warm for this test. Neither the red puffy nor the pants needed to come out during the race, it only got down to 20 degrees which was warm.

I figured that when I was fully loaded, and if I did what I needed to do eating-wise going into the event, I totaled ~220-230 lbs of person, bike, water, and gear at the starting line. I was trying to eat more going into the event too. Yes, I would take less stuff next time. BUT next time could be colder, so it’s not possible to know what I would do next time.

One of the most stressful decisions I made in optimizing my gear was which puffy jacket to buy. Yes, stressful. I ended up with two puffy jackets: a thin one that I wore during the ride and one stayed in reserve if it was a very cold situation and would be used for stops. Both are size XL so a hydration pack can fit under.

Upsizing everything except for my chainring which I downsized was critically important. I usually wear size 42 winter boots. The boots I ended up in are size 46 and that was a perfect choice. My feet literally stayed warm the entire race for the 33.5 hours I was out there in the elements. My number one fear of getting cold feet was never realized! Nor did my knees have any complaints about the largeness of the boots or anything. The only thing I don’t recommend about this: due to the number of cold days we had in Boston, I didn’t realize I needed to go bigger on my boots until a week prior to traveling. So my first ride in the new boots was on the shakedown the day before the race. That’s a big no-no. Don’t test anything that close to the real event!

I like the idea of being self-sufficient. There’s a freedom that comes from being able to keep going without the help of anyone else. Winter riding is safer in my opinion too. My logic is this: bears are hibernating and anyone out to harm anyone else is not venturing out on a cold, snowy day, nor would anyone expect to find someone out riding her bike on the snow. It’s possible to dress warmly enough for even the harshest conditions. Should something bad happen, one can jump in the bivy and stay warm for hours until help arrives.

This leads me to my #2 fear: animals that don’t hibernate such as bison and moose. Since social media reads my mind and decided to add to my growing list of reasons to be anxious going into this race, this image of a snow-covered bison popped up on my Facebook feed days before the event. I haven’t been able to get this out of my head since:

I’ll fast forward to the end of the story since you’re sitting on the edge of your seat. There was not a sound out there for hours upon hours. The night riding, something I had been very much looking forward to for the purposes of overcoming yet another fear of being alone at night, was silent and magical. Darkness started around 5:30pm and the sun rose lazily around 8am. I never saw a single hoof print, no pterodactyls swinging from the branches, nothing. There were snowmobiles passing during the day at fairly regular intervals on day 1, but other than this, nada. The largest living non-human creature I saw from the time I started the race until the finish was a teeny tiny bug. Fear #2 never materialized. Jay had said not to be worried about any animals out there when I’d emailed him about this, so that offered me some comfort going in as well.

Getting to Park Island, Idaho

My husband, Rob, and I flew into Bozeman, Montana Tuesday prior to the Fat Pursuit which was going to start 7am that Friday. I am thankful we gave ourselves 2.5 days prior to the event starting. Less time would have been stressful in order to do everything that needed to be done before Friday morning. Not many people flew in, most drove from nearby states. Every year, some roads get closed with weather so anyone who really wants to be there should consider making a vacation out of it and arrive as early as possible.

I shipped all of my gear and bike to the lodge where we were staying a week in advance. Didn’t want to have to rely on our stuff being checked at the airport and making a connecting flight. Any one bag missing would be potentially race-threatening.

West Yellowstone is probably a crazy-busy tourist town in summer, but it’s a cozy town full of snowmobiles in the winter.

There was a lot to do to get ready for Friday. We took advantage of the sweet snow-filled town of West Yellowstone for their coffee shop, food shopping, finding white gas for the camp stove, (learning that Coleman fuel is the same as white gas, available at the hardware store and some gas stations), and all of the little odds and ends we needed for the week and race. Three grocery store visits were necessary to accumulate the food I’d need for my race for the two drop bags we were allowed along with the stuff I’d be starting with.

West Yellowstone has more snowmobiles driving on the snow-covered streets than cars. Some businesses that are closed for the season had 11 foot snow drifts in front of their doors!

Shake Down Ride

Thursday morning was the first day I’d ridden my bike since a nice, shortish group ride on December 28. Between then and January 5 was a lot of preparing and my bike had shipped so I couldn’t worry about not riding it. I felt good at this point and quite well rested, too. I met up with a friend, Art O’Connor, who has been doing Fat Pursuit for at least 4 years.

I met Art at the Tour of the Gila back in 2006 - 16 years ago! He offered space at a host house he was staying in to a teammate of mine and me having no idea who I was and only just having met my teammate. My teammate hardly knew me either. The host family couldn’t have been more welcoming to their home. One of the best parts about racing is meeting people and host families. I am seeing this is true for people who tour on their bikes, too. I have heard so many stories of people opening their doors to cyclists across the country. I include this story because the connections in this cycling world are pretty special and they are not to be taken for granted! I was new-ish to the cycling world back then, jumping head-first into road racing, and I am new to the ultra cycling world now. There’s so much growth to be had in this sport and it’s all made possible by good, generous people in so many aspects that make it all happen.

Art gave me lots of advice and shared stories of his previous Pursuits during our shake-down ride the day before the race.

Ride Headquarters and I worked with Art to spec a new Seven Cycles Treeline SL for the Fat Pursuit this fall.

Art’s Treeline SL frame is in the hands of some of the outstanding Seven Cycles frame builders who made his frame. From left: Kirk, George, and Stef.

It was incredibly fulfilling to see Art take on Fat Pursuit on his new bike and see him all smiles after coming in Top Ten with a really fast time.

Art was happy with his successful Pursuit.

Gear Check and Pre-Ride Meeting

Thursday, the day before the race, there was an afternoon gear check for each racer and a pre-ride meeting for all that evening.

After the gear check and race number pick up Thursday, I was feeling ready and excited to get going!

The gear check was comprehensive and even educational. The friendly gear checker asked me where I had all of the required equipment and wanted to see most of it. When he saw my thermos, he suggested to me to be sure the liquid was warm in there and to watch out for the lid freezing. That advice came in handy during the race. He also asked if I had a mascot. He’d seen Chompy on the fork! A high-five from the gear checker, I’d passed that first test. Time to get my number plate and swag including a nice sweatshirt for showing up.

One of the themes that ran throughout the Fat Pursuit weekend was taking the race very seriously but not taking anybody or anything particularly seriously at all. Chompy fit right in to the fun that everyone was having.

Chompy’s Support Crew: that’s me!

Rob and I take Chompy on our bike riding adventures and we share photos of Chompy out there with our little 3- and 5- year old niece and nephew. We want to expose them to the world and let them see the joy bikes bring us. We hope that Chompy being in the photos and participating in the adventures is a nice way for us to share all of this with them. I admit that when I’m riding with Chompy and I see that grin of his, it picks me up, makes me smile, and I feel less alone. Chompy even has his own Instagram feed. My team name was Chompy’s Support Crew when I took on the 60k Covid Edition Fat Pursuit near home two years ago. Here we were for the real thing!

Jay Petervary discussed the important details at the pre-race meeting.

Mind Over Matter

One of the speakers at this meeting said that everyone there could finish Fat Pursuit. Anyone is allowed to register for it so this is somewhat of a bold statement. Likely because of the event website, people all seem to come to Island Park taking their preparation seriously. It’s awesome one can make this their foray into winter ultra cycling. I feel like I couldn’t have picked a better event for my intro into this whole community and what felt like being enveloped into a microcosm of what is good in the cycling world.

I, too, believe that everyone has the capacity and ability to finish this race. The more I learn about people who take on ultra-distance events, the more I believe what is humanly possible with sheer will. I have spent a significant amount of energy telling people that they can do anything on a bike as long as you keep eating to fuel the ride.

The resumes of many of the participants are deeply impressive, but there’s no need to get intimidated. No one was flexing out there, everyone was there for their own reasons (so many “I love riding on snow” comments). Impressing the world at large isn’t generally one of the reasons considering most of the people with the fanciest resumes have done less hard things* that have gotten more press.

*Hard can be defined in a lot of ways. Is it harder to carry 40 pounds of stuff on you & your fat bike, average 5.8mph for 22 hours or take on a stage of the Tour de France that involves a light bike, extremely fast smooth roads, warm temperatures, is approximately the same total mileage, and is over in 5 hours? Commence the debate.

I saw a lot of Ididerod Trail Invitational finisher coats on people. The Ididerod is as serious and hard as it gets, though I heard enough people say that the snow of Island Park is more challenging to ride than the snow of Alaska. The conditions of Alaska appear to me to be far scarier than those presented in Island Park just based on what I heard from others.

It was interesting listening in to numerous conversations about Ididerod experiences, who is headed there this year, all kinds of stuff about it. That’s a conversation that I never hear in New England. And this area is full of exceptional cyclists. Alaska and the Ididerod just doesn’t appear to me to be part of our world view yet.

After it was over, Nan, Erika, and I shared stories from our Pursuits. Nan, left, was the 3rd woman to finish and she’s headed to the Ididerod this winter.

I went in believing that I would be a finisher this year. However, on my list of goals for this year, finishing was further down the list. My goals were:

• Ride in the night alone

• Boil water and make snow into water during the event

• Get the full Fat Pursuit experience (turns out this conflicted with the goal of finishing)

• Get Chompy to the finish line with that silly grin still on his face

Commence the Race

Friday morning finally arrived and 7am was the start time! I was awake an hour and a half early to eat a hearty breakfast and get dressed.

Standing on the start line, this was a rare opportunity for me to start a race with friends, the fastest, the funnest, oldest and youngest. One of the young riders was wondering out loud about not having facial hair considering how many participants out there had more protected faces. I joked that it was totally okay, considering how much I have.

Jay Petervary high fived many riders before the start, here he is wishing Jacob a good race. I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos with Jay and Jacob (still a teenager and eventual 4th place in this race!) talking about their experiences racing together, their gear, etc. So cool to see them in person together!

It was a really good scene. I finally met Jay Petervary as I was standing there, when he had too much going on, he took a moment to come over to say hello. What do you say to someone you respect, who you’ve heard about for years, and who is a legend in the bikepacking/ultra/winter world? Introduce him to the dinosaur who is along for the ride on your fork leg, of course.

Jay said some really nice stuff to me and thanked me for being there. I was impressed that in a busy moment, he had the presence of mind to chat and tell me that he appreciated me being there. But that’s what I’m feeling: I was so thankful for this event and that I could be there even more so since I almost didn’t get to be there. I didn’t say any of that, I was too distracted being so excited about the whole thing!

Moments before the race started. I’m wearing a golden colored jacket standing at the front looking like a hunchback with my 3L hydration pack filled to the gills. I felt no nerves, only the thrill of being able to be there.

There were a total of 8 women racing their bikes and 45 men. There were also 4 men and 2 women out there on their feet pulling a sled behind them. I just cannot fathom walking/running that distance. Those racers would have used snowshoes instead of regular shoes if the conditions had warranted it.

Watch this video of the start, it was the very best start of any race I’ve ever done. It was adrenaline filled, people were falling off their bikes left and right, some people went off course, and it was just gorgeous getting to see the large full moon looking down on us riding out into the great unknown. Turn on the volume for the audio of what was going through my head most of the day.

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The Queen song “Don’t Stop Me Now” was running through my mind throughout most of day 1 of the race, especially the part: “'Cause I'm having a good time, having a good time.” Though the rest of the lyrics of that song were apropos for what I was out there doing too.

Here’s more of what the first four miles looked like. Glorious.

Hardly any time into the race, there was a huge crowd of riders and what appeared to be the promoters and volunteers hanging out. I was very confused by the social occasion this early on. Ah, it’s time for the water boil test! My water boil was uneventful and it was fun too! I got to meet Billy, my water boil proctor and awesome volunteer, and Patty, a super friendly spectator who was going to race the 60k the following day. I believe both live in Colorado. Rob was there capturing the moments too. They all helped me pass time while I was waiting for the water to boil!

At the start of my water boil test, everything worked as expected. It probably took about 10 minutes to get the water to boil, but a total of 30 minutes from stopping to going again. I realized that packing away a hot stove made me nervous and I wasn’t sure if dousing the stove in snow would be a good idea.

We crossed over the highway and headed to infamous Two Top. This was our exit from civilization for what would be many hours.

Off we went, Two Top mountain and a whole lot of climbing was next!

We needed to make it to Checkpoint 1 (inaccessible by car) before 7pm to stay ahead of the first time cut.

There was literally 10 feet of pavement in the first 75 miles of the course. That may have been all of the pavement there was for the whole race for all I know.

Studded tires were not necessary. I did ride studded tires (45NRTH Dillinger 5) mostly because I wanted to train on my bike on potential ice near home immediately before shipping the bike and wanted to have as much time riding the setup exactly as I’d be racing it since there was so little time to test everything out pre-race. If you were to go to Idaho and ride any road prior to getting to a trail, I’d guess that studded tires would come in handy.

Tire Pressure

How many times I stopped to take air out of my tires, I’m not sure. Everyone was taking air out of their tires and stopping to take jackets off. It was also warming up which softens the snow making it harder to ride (mashed potatoes!) and the warm air increases air pressure in the tires. Let more air out. But don’t burp your tires, that’d be too much and oof that would be terrible.

This is the first time I have run my fat tires tubelessly, I’ve been a big fan of tubes up until now for a list of reasons. The use case changed for Fat pursuit.

I have Tyrewiz bluetooth gauges on my wheels so I’d know what pressures I was running. These really come in handy on the fat bike due to low pressures and being able to read to the tenth of a psi. I finally settled out at 1.7 and 2.1 psi front and rear by 6:30pm. I didn’t add any air after taking it all out, it never felt like higher pressure would allow faster forward progress even once the trail got groomed. Who knows? All I do know is that I was crashing a fair amount at closer to 3 psi and it takes time to pick the bike and self up while waving the kind snowmobilers on as each one would stop and ask if all was okay. They were nice out there. I usually crashed when there were a lot of people around to watch.

What not to wear

If there’s one thing this event is not it’s not a fashion contest. Everyone looks frumpy, mis-matched, un-color coordinated, and the exact opposite of what cycling ads spend a lot of money promoting. All apparel is selected in the name of being warm and comfortable for 21-55 hours in the great outdoors. There isn’t a single apparel company that can outfit a rider since it’s such a hodgepodge of stuff gathered from the ends of the earth.

No one was showing off team kit or sponsored apparel. It felt odd to be starting a race where we all looked so not pro.

Alex Howes, formerly a world tour pro of team EF Education First, a contract that ended 6 days prior to this race, was one of the Pursuers. He blended in with everyone else where it came to apparel selection for the race.

You’ll see that many riders don’t wear helmets at this event. It is much easier to manage head warmth and basic head comfort without the helmet, but I don’t feel safe without it. Next time I’d go without the shell over my helmet, it would have been good if my head had been allowed to breathe. I was sweating a lot and the shell was dripping sweat on me.

Due to the warm temperatures predicted, I made a last-minute decision to not wear wool pants under my 45NRTH winter cycling shell pants. I wore Velocio summer bib shorts (quick “bathroom” breaks are vital that these bibs allow), knee-high socks, and then the winter pants that have vents. This decision made me nervous since my plan had been to wear this and a wool base layer shirt as fundamental to my race attire. The lowest temperature my Garmin recorded for the whole time I was out there was 25 degrees. I think in actuality in the middle of the night it may have gotten down to 20 degrees in terms of what it felt like, but that’s still just hot if you’re riding a bike in fluffy, mashed potato snow.

Sweating can lead to freezing. Staying just cool is important. I was pleased with my decision on leaving the wool pants off; I rarely closed the vents on the shell pants, my legs stayed toasty throughout.

I had this look on my face for at least the first five hours. I was overjoyed to be there and I was comfortable too.

For my upper body, I wore a wool sports bra, wool base layer, and full-zip fleece layer. Over that was my hydration pack then XL Nano down jacket and/or an XL wind jacket depending on how warm I wanted to be. These layers over the pack went on/off frequently. I stopped every time I needed to adjust my wardrobe. Not sure if other people are able to do this on the fly.

I kept a wool beanie and wool neckwarmer on the whole time except when I stopped to bivy in the wee morning hours. The neck warmer froze into ice in the night, but it was still useful and good to breathe into when it was frozen.

With the temperatures so warm, I was able to dry off after sweating too much prior to night falling and potentially freezing. From head to toe, I was comfortable the entire time I was out there including when I was setting up to bivy, breaking down the bivy, and spending an hour boiling enough snow to make 3L of water the following morning. The only adjustment I might make in the future is to add a lightweight vest over the hydration pack.

For socks, I wore thin liner socks and over those, some super thick expedition socks made by REI. These socks took up all of the space in those waaay-too-big boots and kept my feet toasty. Having toes that wiggled was just what I needed to be warm. Even after stopping to bivy, which meant leaving my boots outside for 1.5 hours in the cold of night, I kept the boot liners on my feet and by the time I’d put the boots back on and the cold of the boots got through the liners, my feet were generating enough heat to stay comfortable! Woohoo, success!

Most of the time I didn’t wear anything on my eyes. During Day 1 it got sunshiny and bright so I wore sunglasses for some of the day. I packed clear goggles just in case, seemed like good insurance to have those.

Having lots of reflectivity on bike and body could have been useful. Should a light go out, the reflectivity is really important for visibility. I took lots of extra lights (3 rear lights plus extra batteries), but saw others struggling with theirs out there. Luckily, the snowmobiles stopped running after dark, but that’s not guaranteed. The snow groomer comes through, too.

Two Top Mountain

The ride up Two Top mountain was absolutely lovely. I was chatting with Jennifer Hanson, someone a friend from here had told me to find out there. Early on, I did find her and her husband, Jason. They are from Arizona and I was just thrilled to hear it. They both finished the Pursuit last year in more challenging conditions. No one can use the excuse about getting cold now, if Arizona riders can do it, ANYONE can do it. She was telling me about the cool trees at the top of Two Top. They were spectacular!

Chatting with Jennifer as we approached the start of the Two Top ascent.

There wasn’t a ton of hike-a-bike up Two Top, and there was zero wind. I hear this never happens! I enjoyed the cycling. My teeny 24t chainring and massive 52t cog on the cassette got utilized a whole bunch. Legs and lungs were all good, I kept my heart rate in low zone 2 and had hours of fun sightseeing.

The snow was easier to ride earlier in the day before it warmed to 32 degrees and before a lot of snowmobiles turned up the snow. Snowmobiles make the snow much harder to ride. I heard the term snow machine used quite a lot.

How beautiful is this?!

There was a good amount of back and forth with other riders and the foot people too. It was nice seeing people frequently, having some conversations. I was impressed with how quickly other people asked my name and wanted to get to know each other. One rider I saw more than anyone else throughout the race, his name is Justin from Wyoming. It felt like everyone was out to help out everyone else.

A few people asked me if I was Danni. Eventually, I found Danni and ended up riding with her quite a bit that afternoon. I was glad I’d gotten confused for her, she was a class act. I got to know her in the little sauna that the organizers set up at checkpoint 1.

The view of a warming tent, what I’m calling a sauna, with Jacob enjoying the warmth at checkpoint 2.

Does it sound like it’d be miserable to sit in a sauna then go back out in the cold? It was absolutely fine, getting warm felt quite good and there was no extra cold feeling after leaving the sauna. The low humidity of Idaho is likely to thank. Considering the self sufficiency the race required, I felt a bit guilty for using the sauna and for getting the wonderful assistance by the very helpful volunteers at this checkpoint.

I only got this photo at the checkpoint, doesn’t do it justice. It was 4pm, the sun was setting and temperatures were dropping. There was a lot to do and I was trying to move fast (everything was in slow motion for me though) and I didn’t want to skimp on sauna time.

I almost forgot to mention the grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich! That was the very best grilled pb&j sandwich ever. Yes, it was also my first grilled pb&j. It hit the spot. They had very hot water ready to go and warm water so I filled my pack, er, Billy filled my pack, I was unable to do basic things by myself. I also had most of a cup of noodles.

I made two mistakes here: I came in low on water so I had been rationing for the last 2ish hours. I should have guzzled a bunch here then refilled my pack. Instead, I drank nothing and then hydrated while riding. That cost me valuable free hydration. Mistake #2 was not putting enough Untapped Maple in my water. I had the first 3 liters concentrated with Untapped Maple and it went down well all day along with providing valuable calories. Slightly weaker water ended up making me nervous and plain water was undrinkable and not possible to digest, at least that’s how it felt.

Some of the food I packed and prepared for the checkpoint resupply bags is shown here. There was more not shown in this photo. The bike-specific food I had shipped from MA, it would have been impossible to find bike-specific stuff locally. Food choices that I loved: red licorice, Untapped Maple drink mix, a slice of pizza warmed between base layers, bites of cool mint chocolate Clif bars, chocolate covered pretzels. What didn’t I love? Plain water, that was nearly impossible to drink.

On the trail again, with this checkpoint an out and back, it was super nice to see riders both who had already visited the checkpoint heading back out and those headed to it after I left. It was an opportunity to see a lot of people, cheer for others, and have some idea who was ahead and behind me. I didn’t look at the dot tracker for the others even though there was cell reception. I don’t know that looking would have been helpful.

Off to Checkpoint 2 and a very, very long night. The time cut for CP2 was 7pm the following day - a full 24 hours after the first time cut and about 48 miles to cover.

The next climb was very substantial. Not as steep as Two Top but it went on and on. I heard a lot of riders say this was the hardest part of the whole ride for them. The dark came and I was very alone. I wanted this situation, I had imagined it many times as riding into an abyss. The dark got to me and I wasn’t feeling particularly peppy. This is the first time I put on headphones and turned on some music Rob had shared with me. Fast-paced, upbeat. Two to three hours elapsed with no one in sight. The music got me out of my funk and I started feeling pretty good again. I stopped and called Rob to say hello. There was magic cell reception in the middle of nowhere! He offered me a good pep talk and told me there were people nearish to me which helped me feel less alone. It was probably 9:30pm, not exactly the middle of the night, but the early sunset made it feel late.

A foot person passed me, hurray, I’m no longer alone! Next I saw two bivying people tucked in their little bivies alongside the trail. I was a little envious but not yet tired, wanted to make more progress. Then I saw Justin boiling water and making a tasty trail-side meal with a dehydrated food package. There was social time when a third person came along. That was nice. Onward!

The volunteers warned us that when the groomer comes through, you get off the track completely. Jump in the deep snow next to the trail. The groomer is one massive machine pulling two more exceptionally large snow flattening devices. It came through at 9:35pm, earlier than expected and the resulting smoothness left behind was heaven to ride compared with the mashed potatoes. See in the photo a rider who had gotten out of the way. The people on foot were not as happy about the grooming, they had been on the best snow all day before the groomer came through!

After the groomer came through, all of the fighting I’d had to do all day to keep my bike riding straight ahead suddenly became much easier. Fighting the snow means it takes two hands to steer the bike, a quality headset that allows easy steering is not your friend, and it’s hard to take a sip of water or eat food. Riding mashed potatoes is a full body workout in ways that used muscles I didn’t know existed.

This is what riding in the dark on a perfectly groomed trail looks like.

After awhile more, I started to bounce back and forth with one foot person named Ian. It was 2am or so. He was talking about stopping to bivy. I thought I’d keep going until I got tired which I was hoping would be during the daylight.

I considered what he was saying and then thought about all of the snowmobiles I’d seen Friday. I knew I could sleep through their loud noises, but is it safe to bivy next to snowmobiles? Finally, it was probably 4:30am and Ian stopped to bivy. I still wasn’t tired in the sleepy sense. This was my first bivy ever outside and turns out it’s a bit of a daunting task in the dark of night for someone who has absolutely no idea how good my equipment will do at keeping me warm. Will I freeze to death while setting up the bivy? Possibly. This hasn’t been tested before. I got a -20 bag, a quality bivy, and two thermal crash pads. The marketing departments of this equipment say I’ll live through this. I know I’m thankful Ian is setting his camp up with confidence.

Ian valiantly out on trail later that day. He ended up finishing third in the foot division.

As you’d expect, Ian was faster at getting setup than I, and I didn’t want to be making any noise while he was trying to sleep. I didn’t want to repay his kindness by keeping him awake. It was snowing some, but still almost no wind.

Aside from having some trouble seeing with the teeny little light I was trying to hold rather than using a headlamp, I got tucked in quickly enough and was warm enough. My heart started to race uncontrollably and after I zipped up the bivy, I felt like I was going to suffocate. I thought I had tested the bivy enough to know that I would not get claustrophobic. What was going on? I unzipped the bivy to let cold, fresh air in. That was scary since I was not convinced I’d stay warm with cold air flowing in. I was wondering if this was a panic attack. Was I freaking out?

The next thing I knew, Ian was telling me that it was time to wake up! That was the soundest 90 quality minutes of sleep. I didn’t get cold either. I had set my alarm in case I overslept, but that was just the right amount of time. I didn’t feel sleepy when I woke up, got to work to pack everything away and was able to get moving fairly quickly. Ian was long gone at this point.

That’s when the wheels fell off. I was feeling like I had no power. I wasn’t tired, but my legs weren’t under me either. I kept looking back to see where the person dragging skis behind me was. Finally, I realized what I I was hearing was my labored breath, my lungs had accumulated fluid overnight. After the sun came up, I stopped to make water out of snow. I made 3 L of water, the whole process took about an hour. During this time, I was coughing and I saw things when I coughed that I didn’t care to know had just been in my lungs. This continued.

Justin passed me, he looked strong and I wasn’t able to maintain conversation. I told him to go on, he looked like he was going to have a great day. I realized I was likely experiencing effects of altitude sickness, something I’ve had once before in a slightly different form, but I know I am susceptible to getting it. I was trying to drink more going in to the event knowing hydration helps ward off altitude sickness.

My pace went from slow to slower, often walking since that wasn’t much slower than riding and I knew I had to stop riding when there was a chance to do so. That meant moving gradually forward all day, struggling to get each mile to pass until I got to an area where Rob could come meet me with the car at mile 75. Thankfully, after hours of no cell service, I was able to contact him so he had time to get to where I’d be riding in.

Not long after I’d decided I’d need to stop, along came an angel, fellow racer named Erika. I’d met Erika before the race and had seen her near checkpoint 1. She was chatty and so nice to ride with. I felt badly because she was riding faster than me, feeling better than me, but trying to wait for me, too. Finally, it made sense for her to keep moving, but her company made quite a few miles go by faster.

Erika was a chipper, breath of fresh air out there! I was so thankful to see her the morning of the second day!

I’d been imaging I was seeing people, buildings, and a whole ski team too! Each time, these just turned out to be snow-covered trees. Erika had mentioned having hallucinations too, I was so glad to hear it wasn’t just me turning everything into something! It sounds like this happens to a lot of people. There was so much unexpected out there that I was so glad to be able to discuss with people at the end.

When I saw Rob waving at me, I was certain he was a hallucination. I didn’t wave back. He waved again, this time I knew he was real! What a relief! The moment we put my bike in the car, I wondered if I should have tried to keep riding. The biggest issue with that, had my body not been in a place of reeling from what I will blame on altitude, was that I would miss the Sunday toast at 12pm, I’d miss most people who would head home right after the toast. I have never felt a more serious case of FOMO!

Edyn and his father who was there to support Edyn at Checkpoint 2. This checkpoint was accessible by car and was called the “Breakfast” stop. Volunteers were serving up pancakes!

Racers take a moment at Checkpoint 2, the fires at the checkpoints were wonderful, in addition to the saunas at each.

Rob drove me to checkpoint 2 so I could see what it was like there. The volunteers had been there for so many hours but were still chipper and they treated me as if I had ridden my bike to that point. I had a terrific chocolate chip pancake, coffee and hot cocoa mixed together and it really helped me feel better. We then continued back to the lodge in the car and that was the end of my Pursuit. I’d been out there for 33.5 hours and 75 miles. I could not have asked for a better experience or a more complete one given the circumstances and all of my goals with the exception of getting Chompy across the finish line were accomplished!

I had a lot of post-race discussions with people at the Sunday 12pm toast. This is me chatting with Tom who had had a successful Pursuit.

I was able to be there at the toast Sunday at 12pm. There was time to hear about other people’s rides, hear how the night had gone for others, where they had bivied, what parts were hard, what they got out of it, all of the details. Even among the veterans, people were sharing tips that had worked for them. The learning ever ends for this kind of an event.

The toast is a perfect opportunity to wrap up the Pursuit, see people, leave feeling good after congratulating each other, sharing hugs and lots of smiles. I was so glad to be able to be there this year.

I met more people, everyone was happy for everyone else: we’d all survived and all raced our own races and overcome stuff to get to the start line and more stuff to get to the finish. Everyone has a story of overcoming to share, we’re all human and no one is immune from life stuff that gets in the way of a perfectly smooth road to a race like this one.

It was nice to be able to thank both Jay and Tracy after this was over, along with the volunteers who had worked incredibly hard to pull the whole weekend off.

I got to celebrate what I did accomplish even though it wasn’t a finish. While I was out there riding, I was thinking it’d be fine if I never did this again. By the time Sunday rolled around, I was already thinking about next year. As long as I can get ahead of the altitude issue, I will be back. My lungs cleared up quickly indicating my symptoms were definitely related to altitude. I felt 100% within two days, just a little residual soreness remained afterward.

The wonderful volunteers and organizers of Fat Pursuit celebrating a very successful 10th year of the event. Many of these people have volunteered for all or most of those years!

I heard a lot of great things about the camp Jay hosts alongside the very best in the business prior to the Fat Pursuit start from a lot of people who have attended one or more of the camps. He encouraged attending that in the future along with taking more time to acclimate. Carving out a little more time will be worth it and knowing so much more for a future year of Pursuing, it’ll be less worry and less imagining things like the snow-covered bison.

I went out to the finish Sunday night and there was a party still happening, all of these people were waiting for the last finisher to come through 60 hours after the start. Let this be a lesson in not being too worried about being last - it’s okay to be that last person, and wow, that final person got that much more time to enjoy the snow out there and still got a party!

What’s next? I’m looking forward to many more special fat bike rides on the snow in New England this winter and I am going to take advantage of every opportunity to bivy, to ride longer, test out my gear and systems, ride in various weather conditions, stay connected with the winter ultra community, continue to optimize my setup, work on eating and drinking more while riding, and dream about future winter ultra events. I’ll be watching as others take on more winter cycling challenges, I’ll be rooting for people as they race the Ididerod, and I will carry the confidence and knowledge I gained at the Fat Pursuit to every challenging ride I do from now to eternity.

The landscape of the Fat Pursuit is breathtaking.

Thank you to Rob, the good people of Seven Cycles who built my awesome Highline XX fat bike and helped get it ready for this event, all of the wonderful people who made Fat Pursuit happen, my friendly fellow competitors out there, everyone who offered me advice along the way, my very supportive family, and everyone in the cycling community who have sent your best wishes, who followed my dot, who supported me via social media. I has all meant so much to me.

I hope my ride has inspired some of you, too. The winter cycling world is wide open to all who desire to be part of it and it’s an incredible place to be.

Latest eNews is Out and a quick update

If you aren’t receiving our email newsletter, be sure to sign up for it! Here’s the latest one to check out - there are A LOT of new rides on our autumn calendar and we’re already looking forward to hosting the 8th annual First Snow Ride!

Subscribe to our e-newsletter if you’re not already getting it in your inbox. If you’re not seeing it, be sure to whitelist connect@rideheadquarters.com so it comes through.

The HQ van hosted a welcoming party to Dan Schmitt as he rode into town after completing a cross-country bikepacking trip on his Seven Evergreen. The van loves popping up ice cream parties!

It’s been quite a year! We’re celebrating the big, red van’s first anniversary today. We have enjoyed the ability to meet riders all over New England and spec out amazing new bikes with you in an even more dedicated, thoughtful way. The new bikes that have resulted have been so great, and have been treating riders to fun, local rides, and big rides all over the world.

We saw an uptick in S&S coupled bikes that are easy to travel with this year. Getting back to normal has involved making up for lost travel time with the bike during the pandemic.

Bike components are all coming back into stock now, we’re not seeing nearly as many stockouts or lengthy leadtimes on the components you want for your new bike. Seven Cycles continues to crank out frames for our excited riders.

While we work with quite a few people on performance road bikes, it’s very common for these bikes to have more generous tire clearances and handling qualities so the bike can easily double as a gravel bike.

As we transition into autumn and shorter, chillier days, we recommend thinking about your winter cycling.

It may not be the thing you want to think about now, but imagine being excited to ride in the snow, imagine having a chance to connect with your cycling friends in the dead of January. We host absolutely awesomely fun rides on the “worst” days of the year. Seven Cycles’ Treeline bikes are performance mountain bikes, bikepacking bikes, and lightweight, nimble fat bikes as well. Ask for a demo to see just how much riding a Treeline can make available to you, all year.

Ask us about building a Seven Cycles bike for four seasons of riding, perfect for safe, fun winter riding then extending into the best summer riding on all kinds of dirt trails and roads.

Unbound Race Report 2022, 200 Mile Edition

Ride HQ’s founder, Patria Vandermark, participated in the 200-mile edition of the Unbound Gravel race on June 4, 2022 in Emporia, Kansas. She shares her very special experience of the event and weekend with us.

Moments after finishing Unbound, there’s a person and bike under all of that mud.

Unbound started for me back in January of 2020, when I entered the lottery for the 2020 version of the race. Covid hit in the spring so Unbound was cancelled that year. I chose to defer my registration to this year when I hoped Covid would be in the rear view mirror.

Ride Headquarters filled the spring with Gravel Training rides and the Gravel Panel Session (still available to watch) to help make the training happen for me and everyone who was doing early season gravel events and to share as much knowledge as possible.

The second Ride HQ gravel training ride was a 100km adventure ride starting in Lincoln, MA.

The big, red Ride HQ van, my husband, Rob, and I road tripped from Boston to Emporia, Kansas, driving ~25 hours, arriving Thursday evening, with just enough time to set up camp before the gorgeous Kansas sunset.

The Lyon Fairgrounds in Emporia was home for the weekend, it’s run by a nice man named Ken. Reservations worked like this: call Ken a few months ago, tell him we’re coming. An electrical hookup would be helpful. Pay in person when we arrive, no deposit necessary. He’s not worried, he knows we’ll be there. At the end of the weekend he tried to convince us to stay, it wouldn’t have taken much arm twisting!

Lyon County Fairgrounds was more than comfortable for the weekend.

Friday morning was casual, we cooked a huge pancake breakfast at camp.

Rob came to support my ride and that involved being chef, mechanic, photographer, driver, and alarm clock!

We can’t travel without a tasty coffee experience whether we’re bikepacking or van camping.

After breakfast and doing dishes - there was both electricity and running water at the fairgrounds - we rode our bikes 2 miles into downtown Emporia to get checked in for the race, and see the XL racers start their event. XL riders had a 350-mile course and were required to keep at least a 10mph average including stops, completely self-supported.

There was a throng of people cheering for the XL racers.

I was excited to see many Ride HQ riders in Emporia in addition to our supplier partners who we haven’t seen in over 2 years due to the pandemic.

For all of the festivities happening, I felt fortunate to be able to see these people all at the same time:

Riders from left: me, Michael, Derrick, Andrew, and Elliott. Everyone shown here finished the 200 mile race.

Shimano was proudly displaying a Seven Cycles Evergreen built up with Shimano’s limited edition 1x GRX components. There were a good number of Seven Cycles’ bikes out there, quite a few under our riders, but also a number of Sevens under riders who had worked with other shops. Unbound is the perfect ride for an Evergreen in so many ways. I’ll write more about my bike setup and why Evergreens are ideal for Unbound; it’s a long article by itself.

Shimano’s GRX tent displayed this Seven Cycles Evergreen s with limited edition cockpit, along with 1 x GRX components.

Naturally, I missed people I was anxious to see. If I were to do it again, I’d arrive Wednesday night so as to have two full days to shake out travel legs and have time more time with people.

I snuck in a quick pre-ride of the first few miles of the route. It was just long enough to see the starting stretch and feel the first few turns which would be taken with hundreds of other people, likely at high speeds. Stay right. The line is smooth and the road is cambered safely for those on the right.

The night before I wasn’t feeling nervous or really even thinking about the race much. My mind was more concerned with making sure everything was ready for the morning, the Garmins were loaded with the route, yes, plural, I think I brought at least 2 of everything. At this point I’d over-thought everything a few too many times. Not having nerves seemed like maybe I’d be in for quality sleep. Ha no. Of course not.

Whoop told me I’d gotten one of the best sleeps of my life when I woke up Friday morning. I didn’t look at my Whoop data the morning of the race. Glad I didn’t look: it thought the 3 hours of sleep I got wasn’t enough and I was in the red.

Race Day Begins Early

The alarm went off at 2:45am. Rob was already up making coffee and breakfast. He barely slept. I took a few moments to dig myself out of bed. First order of business: eat a massive bowl of oatmeal filled with nuts and berries. Having had an early dinner the night before likely made this undertaking easier than usual.

No one looked to be awake anywhere around our campsite. Did we get the date wrong? One of my fears of staying at the fairgrounds was that it was going to be a loud party all night. Wrong. Everyone went to bed early and the noise that threatened sleep was only distant trains blowing their horns for the entire night. Ear plugs made those noises go away completely.

While digesting breakfast, I did my hair and got dressed and ready to ride. Time before an event moves faster than regular time. 1 hr 45 minutes of time felt more like 15 minutes. Regardless, Rob and I were ready and rolling to town before 5am.

We met up with RHQ rider Elliott, and his wife, Leanna, at the coffee shop so we could collect ourselves. It was chilly out there!

While Elliott, center, and I stood around trying to stay warm, 100-mile racer, Alan from Marblehead, happened to find us! Alan had joined in on the RHQ Gravel Training rides and here we all were now in Kansas, ready to do the thing we’d all been training for!

Alan captured super video footage on his ride - check it out!

Elliott and I decided to start together and the plan was to stay together if it was possible. We have similar strengths on training rides, but add 1,200 other riders and neither of us knew how the dynamic would shake out.

I visited the portajohn - no line, nice! Upon leaving the toilet seconds later, there was already a long line waiting. Pete Steina was in line. The pros use these facilities too. We are all, essentially, treated the same.

While there are plenty of facilities, people were literally pouring into town and this line formed in a matter of 2 minutes. It must have grown quite long as the start drew nearer.

Elliott and I chose to start with the 14 hour pace group - everyone can start wherever feels appropriate, given one’s expected finish time. There are cheerleaders holding up signs to make it obvious where to go. I was expecting somewhere around 16 hours, but wanted to start a bit ahead of this time just to have stronger wheels to follow, hopefully stronger=safer, too.

Elliott and Leanna have a moment together prior to the start. From where we stood, we could barely see the start clock.

A train came through, the start got pushed out by 6 minutes as organizers waited for it to pass. 6:06am official start time.

Race Starts!

Once the race began, it didn’t really begin back where I stood. It was a casual rollout, a long, straight, paved road. It was more like being part of a parade with people cheering on both sides of the road. It felt great. There was no one moving up or falling back, everyone seemed perfectly content with their position - there was plenty of room to move up so it was an option. I know the race ahead of me was likely chaotic, but where I was, it was chill.

Riders stretched for blocks after the start. It got light quickly.

I was gleeful to be there. It finally happened and I was there. I kept expecting something to derail my plans to attend. I know too many people who have recently come down with Covid and that would make racing impossible so I’ve been paranoid about indoor meetings, have been masking up for everything for weeks. It was a relief to be here in the first mile.

Rolling out just after dawn was calm and peaceful, not full of the sketchy behavior I was expecting, though was likely happening ahead on the road.

I stayed to the right, seeing the road I’d pre-ridden, taking the lines I wanted. Feeling good. My legs felt great. This was an easy rollout, but even then, you never know when tired legs start by complaining. I’ve often had good rides that started with angry legs. Not today. My legs were happy to be here.

There was a tiny puddle on the dirt road which I’d pre-ridden and knew it was easy to blast right through, but riders nearly came to a stop. Dear me, did I start too far back? Fortunately, it was one of only a couple of weird stops that weren’t necessary and simply due to too many riders. At least no one was being sketchy around me.

Very early on in the ride, we were headed toward serious storm clouds. We got spat on some but otherwise didn’t get soaked like many of the riders up the road.

I did everything I could to follow wheels and take clean lines. I would mark those who looked like good riders who were smooth and seemed to be selecting the best lines, then I would take possession of that person’s wheel, sticking close enough to get their pebbles in my face. Some tires are nicer to the rider following than others! I pulled out my road racing experience which has been lying dormant for many years. Being in a tight pack and jockeying for position is an element of road and crit racing I secretly enjoy. The stuff I don’t like about road racing is non-existent in the gravel scene.

My gleefulness of being here continued mile after mile. I was so happy to be doing this and having this shared experience with ALL of these people.

Water Crossings!

The very first water crossing was a slow walk very early on when there were too many people together. People were trying to keep their feet dry and it was funny to see the calculations in people’s minds. Do I have to get my feet wet? Pause. GO. I was glad to get it out of the way early so it wasn’t something to dread, but to welcome.

First water crossing of the day happened very early in the ride.

The next water crossing was about 2 feet deep 18 miles in. I watched someone in front of me ride through so I went for it and I laughed out loud as I rode through splashing out the other side. It felt great to get through that and stay upright. That was the first of many. Most were rideable - I was careful to ride the exact lines of people who rode ahead of me so as to not get surprised by a hiding rock. Water crossings are dangerous since the bottom can’t be seen on most.

Mechanicals

After every single water crossing and nearly every section of rougher road (it is all gravel so I’m talking about rougher-than-usual road), there was at least one rider fixing a flat or dealing with a mechanical. There were hundreds of mechanicals that I saw people dealing with throughout the day. It seemed thousands of water bottles were donated to the volunteer clean-up crew that had flown out of bottle cages.

The closest thing to a mechanical I had is that one of my cameras broke off of the handlebar because its mount broke. They say not to do anything new on race day. This was the only “new” thing I incorporated into my setup on race day. “They” are right. The camera went flying on a fast downhill so I got to do that hill twice to go back to collect the camera.

Water Oasis #1 - Texaco Hill, Mile 41

The first water oasis hit at mile 41. I was really hoping the fastest 100 mile riders would pass us before then since they were doing the same first 41 miles we did, they started an hour later than us. Peter Sagan did the 100 mile race so I was assuming he would be passing me in this first section. Alas, he wasn’t riding world-tour speeds and I was keeping a relatively high pace. Darn!

Rob captured this photo of Peter Sagan at the start of the 100-mile race. Looks like Peter is hammin’ for Rob’s camera! Peter’s world-tour teammate, Daniel Oss, is riding just to Peter’s right (so left of him in this photo) - Peter is riding on the yellow line.

People on Texaco Hill, getting water and many people seemed to be spending lots of time rearranging the things on their bikes.

I filled a water bottle, the volunteers were super helpful doing the filling while I was wiping down with the cold, wet bandana volunteers handed out. Clouds still blocked the sun so it hadn’t gotten warm yet. It rained a tad here and there, but it never got rainy, never stormed on us, and the cooler temps meant a much more pleasant day! If you read other people’s accounts of their Unbound, you’ll hear a variety of stories. There was a lot of weather out there and everyone ended up with something different. I felt lucky.

Groups

The group of people I rode into at the oasis broke up there because everyone took more or less time. I found some people I liked riding with, but who knows where everyone was at this point. I didn’t waste time getting back on the bike.

Groups came and went. I met all kinds of people out there throughout the day. I can’t emphasize enough how nice everyone was. I was riding with many guys who looked much stronger than me, but they were happy to have me ride with them, many spoke and said hello. We often exchanged where we were from. I met a man from the Philippines, a first timer. He came the furthest of those I met.

This is Kayde from Denver, she is showing off her pretty nails. The conversation and general chit-chat started when I complimented the mud splatter on the back of her jersey. She was super friendly, and crazy strong. She went on to Beat the Sun. Four days later, I’m still digging mud out of my not-so-nicely manicured nails!

In one group I was riding with, after a lot of quiet on a long, gradual hill, one guy said: “Someone say something, please!” So I replied, “What a fun hill, let’s hope we get more of these!” I think he regretted that request.

My strategy was to ride easy, eat, and do things that are harder to deal with when people are around when I was alone. I’d get ready and be head’s up enough to jump on any group who was passing who wasn’t passing at break-neck speeds. This way, I saved my energy and was with people for probably all but ~3 hours of the day.

The group I enjoyed the most was one that was comprised of teammates from Ontario, around mile ~90-100. They were wearing the same clothes so I knew they would be trying to stay together. I jumped on.

The Ontario team and a few others working together. I wanted to tell them just how thankful I was for the lift.

We rode through a lot of technical sections together and they offered easy wheels to follow, taking fast, good lines. They were trying to Beat the Sun (so finish before the sunset). This is a fast pace. One of their guys started cramping. I convinced him it was in his head. He started feeling better moments later. After awhile, I remembered I had Untapped maple shots in my bag so I passed him one figuring he was probably low on calories too. His chain was squeaking. A squeaking chain is a slower bike, but it is also enough to usher someone to a dark place.

We had a bit of conversation about coming from cold climates and not being heat acclimated.

At this point in the day, the sun was coming out and it was heating up quite a bit. I did some heat acclimatization at home via a sauna blanket and I’m convinced it helped.

The Darkness

Everyone goes into a dark place on rides at some point. I’ve been there, I know what it feels like. A lot of riders visit one or more dark places during Unbound. I really, really wanted to enjoy the ride and was hoping not to have any pain - physical or mental, to put a damper on the day, not that going to a dark place is anything that leaves a bad taste or anything. But still…

This soundtrack “Hello Darkness My Old Friend” started playing in my head about 2 hours into the day. Listen to it if you really want to get into my head while I was drinking in the beautiful green rolling hills of Kansas and pushing on the pedals all the while moving closer to the finish line.

Kansas is deep green, only interrupted with these neat dirt roads that roll for miles.

One of my goals of the ride was to not get into a dark place, however impossible it might be to avoid. Around every corner, I was looking for it. Where are you? Are you coming to visit me today? Watching for the darkness was like watching for Peter Sagan. I missed them both.

My legs felt great all day. My brain was in this game - after 50 miles in, I had 150 miles left and I had confidence doing 150 miles since I’d done the 150-mile RHQ Training Ride. I also had the confidence from people I’ve been riding with in the back of my head. Others believe I can do this and I really want to do this. I counted down the miles in terms I know, comparing with rides I’ve done of the distance remaining. I have done rides of all of these remaining miles and I have often felt more tired at the start of rides I help organize than I was feeling 8 hours into Unbound. 100 miles in, only another 100 to go. No problem. I can do this.

Eating and Drinking

Using a hydration pack with 2 liters of water was a life saver. I drank a lot and nearly constantly. It takes so much less energy to drink out of the hydration bladder than reach down for a bottle. The little things matter during such a big day.

I was properly hydrated all day. For the first time in my cycling life, I think I have figured it out. I also have come to realize how much I have ridden dehydrated in the past and have had harder/slower rides as a result.

Eating was more of a challenge. I started with a Clif Bar at the beginning when I wasn’t working too hard and figured solid calories would be fine. It took me hours to get that one bar down. Giving up on that, I enjoyed a few pieces of Maple Hardtack (our homemade more enjoyable-to-eat maple syrup version of peanut butter brittle). These are easy to eat and are instant leg-saving calories. After awhile, I could taste too much of the butter (taste buds change weirdly during a long day) and my teeth got super sensitive (felt like getting an electrical shock in my molars when I bit down…no idea where that came from!) so that made it not enough fun to eat. I switched to leaning extensively on SIS gels and Skratch Superfuel water bottles. Each bottle had 400 calories so if I kept this up, I’d be properly fueled. The SIS gels went down easily ALL day, along with the Skratch water bottles.

The water in my hydration always had electrolytes with a few calories in it so I didn’t drink plain water all day.

CheckPoint #1 - Eureka, Mile 77

This is the first time I got to see Rob and the HQ van. The van was easy to spot and being greeted by Leanna who told me where to find the van was so pleasant! It was a quick stop, I felt good so just needed to get new water bottles since the ones I had were covered with plenty of mud. I finished that darned Clif Bar, used the portable toilet we brought in the van, and just took a moment to be sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. In the meantime, Rob lubed the chain and changed the battery - all preventative to be sure the next leg would be smooth. Indeed, it was.

Looking clean and fresh still!

Oasis #2 - Hamilton, Mile 115

I got a fresh bottle of water for safety but didn’t need it. They had a hose and I asked them to spray down my arm screens. Ooooh nice. My stomach was starting to get grumpy with me and I couldn’t let it turn over. Once that happens, it’s really hard to get it to work again and at mile 115, there is too far to go.

There was a cute little general store with old fashioned soda fountain at this oasis. I hadn’t planned on visiting the store, but sure am glad I did. I asked for a root beer float. They only had chocolate ice cream left. Fine! You said the magic words: ice cream. And they had some pretzels with southwest seasoning that I would never touch on a normal day. Had a nice conversation with them, thanked them profusely, then went outside to enjoy the chocolate ice cream float.

Traveled back in time at the General Store and this was the best chocolate ice cream float I’ve ever had. It’s also the only one I’ve ever had!

The cyclist standing beside me didn’t have money, but needed a sandwich. The local guy standing there who happened to be at the store offered to pay, didn’t hesitate to offer.

All of this food hit the spot, it was just what my stomach needed. I set up the pretzels so they were easy to access in my jersey pocket. Note that I had to use fingers to get at pretzels. This means that if I ended up getting dirty hands, I’m eating these pretzels with whatever is on my hands.

Wrath of the Kansas Mud

At this point, I’d already written most of this blog post in my head while riding. It was an easy Unbound, no stories to tell, not sure what the fuss is all about blah blah blah…

Time to rewrite the story…

There was a mile of DEEP muddy bog (can’t call that thing a road), it was impassible, and here we are now in the heat of the sun and a slippery road with mud that clings with the jaws of death to every surface of my bike that it can find.

I forgot the camera was running. While capturing images of the day was a high priority, survival mode took over and photographing the carnage was the last thing on my mind once I got stuck in the mud.

Naturally, I felt like I was the only one with a muddy bike that I couldn’t figure out how to move. I’d brought a brush and hard plastic tool meant for cleaning bikes. It just got so muddy too. I resorted to using my fingers to getting the mud off. This was the worst and heaviest mud I have ever seen in my life. It was hard to manage especially because of all of the extra weight; I’d already put a substantial amount of stuff in my saddle bag and had three full water bottles going into this section. Add 20+ pounds of mud to a bike for a tired cyclist with weak arms and that’s a new sport that I didn’t train for!

This mud was 20-30 pounds of solid muck. I was so glad to not have a painted bike or breakable derailleur hanger.

It wasn’t just me. It was everyone. There was a woman on a fat bike trying to get through it, her bike had to weigh 60 pounds with the mud on it, she was staying cheery and offering me encouraging words. We all cracked a lot of jokes.

“Remember we paid for this!”

“It really would have been a boring day without this.”

And the the best: “I just found a worm on my bike…No! Make that TWO!”

One guy was laughing/bemoaning just purchasing some super light cycling shoes that felt like lead weights on his feet with the mud refusing to let go.

At the top of this road where we were all glad to have clawed our way to reach and there are a bunch of locals basically laughing at us (it was totally friendly), meanwhile the race was sponsoring some sort of disc golf challenge. What?! How about a hose to wash off our bikes? Oh - right, disc golf might be a better sport than cycling. It is a big deal in Emporia.

I didn’t hear anyone get upset. Even the guy who fell over off of his bike getting completely covered as we rode into the section, no prob - he was apologizing to me for whatever reason I can’t comprehend. He didn’t come close to taking me down, maybe he splattered me with mud? I assured him all was well. I’ve since read so many IG/FB stories of people saying they loved that section. It killed my time by over an hour. Alas, it hurt everyone’s time by a lot.

Unbound brings out the best in people and brings out people who like to get dirty. It’s so darn cool.

Then there was the bike wash party in the river which was basically the best thing I’d seen and experienced all day. The water felt great and the bike worked well after this washing.

I was glad I brought a brush for bike cleaning, it came in handy at the bike wash!

Impressively, the bike made no noises after all of that. I’d used the plain water in my 3rd bottle to wash out the brake pads and rotors.

There were a lot of bikes out there that hadn’t weathered the mud as well with screeching chains and loudly knocking bottom brackets.

With the mud, my stomach had had plenty of time to recover with the chocolate ice cream working well in my system and I felt great to keep going. There weren’t any groups around so this next stretch was where I ended up riding alone for longer periods of time. Time seemed to tick by properly quickly and I enjoyed some of the terrain in this section. It’s a bit of a blur now, but there were trees and I love trees. There were also some fun climbs.

43 Hills of Motivation

I had labeled every single hill on the route for people who helped me get to Unbound via RideWithGPS and Garmin prompted me at the bottom of hills, reminding me who the hill was named for. Each of these prompts sent cold chills and literally gave my legs more energy. It’s crazy how effective the brain is in terms of affecting performance. Unbound showed this to me again and again. I dedicated the last hill of the day to my late friend, Stephanie Hill. Yes, that’s her last name, appropriate, eh? She and her husband got me out on my first real bike ride. She was a beautiful person inside and out, and her love of cycling, both road and mountain biking, directly brought me into the sport.

Route profile shows quite a few little hills and a few biggies.

The Judge

While we’re talking about hills, the organizers named the biggest hills of the day and there was a banner leading into these. I enjoyed seeing that so I would know how to talk about that particular hill with people.

The Judge is the name of a steep climb with a narrow track and a lot of loose rock on both sides. Having very low gearing, I could ride right up this hill without getting off and walking. A lot of people were walking and falling off of their bikes. I rode a 40t chainring and 10-50 cassette. It was ideal for me.

The route didn’t feel that hilly despite all of the promises of hills that just never end. Death by a thousand cuts they say. It’s hillier in New England and grades are steeper. I also think that after hearing countless stories about how awful the hills are, one gets ready for this psychologically, then when there are fewer than expected hills, it doesn’t feel as bad.

The northern Unbound route is hillier than the south route (this year and next year are the south route). So it could be worse in future years, just probably not by much next year. There was a big climb that was removed at the last minute due to a river overflowing causing a dangerous crossing, so maybe I’d be singing a different tune with another 1,000 ft of climbing.

Descents and Technical Roads

More in the first half of the day rather than the second, many of the times that we turned into a road, it would be rough, class 4, loose and technical in nature. These were so much fun! It became obvious that many people who ride gravel have dirt roads, but not the more technical terrain like we have in New England. Practicing fast descents and techie sections via the Gravel Training rides paid off on numerous occasions during the day. I was able to hang on good wheels and often catch up to people on these trickier descents. My bike gives me so much confidence with how it keeps its wheels on the ground and I ran tires that rolled fast and gripped well.

The best techie sections I didn’t get on camera. This offers a bit of a view into some of the rougher roads.

There were probably a grand total of no more than 10 miles of pavement the entire day. It was nearly all dirt (er, or cow pie) of some kind!

Checkpoint #2 - Madison, Mile 160

This was the second and last time to see support crews before the finish line. I had heard the last 40 miles were a cake walk so I was feeling very good about finishing at this point in the day. It was probably around 8pm. I let this stop take longer. I knew I’d finish, it was a question of how comfortable I’d be doing it. I’d heard how nice it is to change shoes and socks. I was mostly into it due to getting out the gravel that were starting to cause blisters in my shoes so I changed both, ate vanilla ice cream directly out of the quart-size container, Leanna had bought pizza (what a great surprise!) and that looked pretty tasty so I had a slice, and topped it all off with a pickle. My stomach was loving it all! I wasn’t in a deficit, but not having to rely on more calories in the water and gels was a bit of insurance.

Multi-tasking: eating pizza, changing out of the shoes and socks, relaxing. Photo by Leanna.

It was fun to hang out, talk about the race so far, enjoy the evening air… Now looking back, had I kept my check points and oasis stops to the same time as the pros spent at these, I would have been close to making it to the finish by sunset! While I wanted to do my best/fastest on the bike, rushing time here seemed like it would be missing some of the experience. I knew I had plenty of time to make it by the cut off so it was okay to doddle a bit.

I’d be remiss not to mention just how long of a day support people have. They didn’t sleep either but don’t get the adrenaline of riding a bike. They get to see their riders for too little time for the hours they stand around waiting and prepping for those few precious moments. And they are left with a total mess to clean up once the rider rolls out!

Clear glasses on for the evening, happy feet, glad to ride into the Kansas night as I rolled out of the second checkpoint.

The Last 40 Miles

The next 10-15 miles after the checkpoint were a lot solo, some seeing and riding with people here and there. There was another muddy section, but I had learned better and that went quickly since I picked the bike up and walked it, not risking what might get caught in it. I think the front wheel got gummed up a little so I just took it off, bailed the mud, and continued.

Just drafting off the guy with matching hubs. I don’t remember this at all! Turns out, hours later, long after losing him for who knows what reason, I finished with this same guy.

There were free range cows on these roads, where we had to yell while approaching to get them to move off the middle of the road. They were small-ish, nothing bothersome, cool to see for sure.

During some of these solo miles was what I had been most looking forward to: the sunset on the Flint Hills. It was beautiful. Peaceful. Calm. I really love night riding and this was special time.

The People of Kansas

Throughout the entire day, people were standing in the rain/sun/dark cheering for us! They’d been out there ALL day! And they weren’t just clapping or saying “yay go” - they were jumping up and down, yelling, making a lot of noise, kids were out there in on it. SO MANY PEOPLE. Yes, this cheering also goes straight to the legs propelling the bike forward and with less effort. The people everywhere were really big-hearted, happy to have us there, totally into it. Special. For the miles I was alone in the dark, there was always a light of a rider behind me or a cheer squad so there wasn’t actual alone time. Had I been completely alone, I wouldn’t have been afraid, nothing and no one is out there. I must have seen a total of 2 cars not associated with the race all day long.

At some point I think it was approx 25 miles to go, a faster guy passed me. I looked down at my computer and with it telling me I was close to the end, I burned a match to catch back up to him and lock onto his rear wheel. I stayed there. There were two other guys who we connected with who were going quickly and the four of us stayed together. We flew. We hit holes in the road hard - easy to miss in the dark, getting a little careless. I worked harder than I felt like I had since much earlier in the day. I could now spend the energy I was saving because no matter what happens at this point, I’m finishing.

Final Miles

The evening air was comfortable. I stopped eating at some point because it wasn’t necessary and was fine without anything more. It was also flat and aside from many turns, it was a welcome change to turn off my brain and only think about what it was going to be like to cross the finish line. Not long before the end, there was a freight train that took at least 5 minutes to pass. That was a short train for Kansas. We passed a single speed fat bike rider who was going to finish just a few minutes after us. How amazing is that?!

The Finish

I finished feeling complete satisfaction. I did something new, rode the biggest day on the bike I’ve ever had in my life, feeling a whole lot of relief that everything had come together, nothing had managed to get in the way. This big, scary thing ended up being such a remarkable day on the bike and simply a great day to be a human sharing a human experience with fellow riders and the good people of Kansas.

Kansas gained my utmost respect in every way.

Finishing felt really good, hearing the loud cheering, and getting showered with lots of stuff from the Unbound volunteers was a lovely way to end the day.

After-Ride Food

I drank an IPA - thanks Leanna! I wasn’t hungry for anything else. Somehow the time slipped away to 1am, we returned to camp to sleep until 11am the next day. We enjoyed breakfast at the Commercial Street diner in the center of town, and we let that meal last forever.

In Summary

I met so many people through training for the ride and by incorporating the 43 Hills of Motivation, it also brought back great memories of people and rides that were meaningful, all that helped me get to the finish.

Yes, that is one tough day on the bike. Physically, that was the toughest. I have had harder days on the bike though. I could have made it harder on myself by pushing harder, digging deeper, carrying less and risking more to do better. I could have been empty at the end. Proper preparation both mental and physical paid off in so many ways for my Unbound ride to achieve the goals I set for myself this year. This is the race I wanted and I executed on a well-formed plan.

Elliott and Leanna moments after Elliott crossed the line with both very satisfied with the day, and ready for more.

I’m convinced the coulda-wouldas are why people return. Had I done this or that differently, how much time could I have shaved off? For reference: I came in after a total time of 16 hrs and 45 minutes for an 11.7 mph average. Moving time was 14 hours 37 minutes (stopped times were spent at rest stops and that mud!) Moving average speed was 13.7 mph.

I learned so much before going to Kansas, and I learned the intangibles by being there, feeling it, breathing it, touching the mud, and ingesting it.

Would I do it again? In a heart beat. I said this at the finish Saturday night.

Not sure if I will right away due to so many other events in the world that I would like to experience, but yes, I highly recommend the Unbound experience to everyone, no matter who you are.

Happiness is… A long day on the bike with good people.

Discover Solo Cycling

Social Distance Riding

A cyclist rides the hills of peaceful western Massachusetts.

Here’s one article that we never thought we’d write! It’s impossible to believe social distance cycling is a new form of cycling. Considerations of a social distant ride are the following: stores are closed, you’re riding on your own so you have to do your own navigating, you might have more time on your hands so you want to ride further than usual, traffic is quieter, so that also entices you to ride further, and it’s spring, which means you may experience many types of weather. Since you’re riding alone, you need to be more self-sufficient and now if you flat, ringing an Uber to pick you up isn’t necessarily the best decision while social distancing is important.

Stores are closed

When you’re out for a ride, places you’d normally stop to fill up your water bottle are likely to be closed. Fortunately, grocery stores will probably be open, but nothing can be counted on.

Ride with your food and water so a closed store doesn’t force you to turn around early. If your bike allows for three bottle cages, install a 3rd cage and fill all three bottles. Worst case: you get a better workout by dragging around an extra two pounds of water that you didn’t end up needing!

The Honey Bikes Vermonter comes with three bottle cages and all Seven Cycles bikes offer this as an option.

If your bike doesn’t have a 3rd bottle capacity, your 3rd bottle can go in a large saddle bag, keep reading this article.

Food can be stored on your bike in numerous ways. Jersey pockets, though better than nothing, are not the best way to lug food. Bring a sandwich! Real food is better than packaged food if you can get it together.

Ortlieb bags are terrific and they come in various sizes. This one pictured is small, and has firm walls so as to not crush your sandwich, and everything else you want easy access to.

Having access to spare batteries for electricity to juice up your phone or GPS computer is helpful to have at your fingertips in a handlebar bag. Having a spare USB battery (like a Mophie) and charging cables offers you peace of mind that your phone or GPS computer won’t die on you should you choose to ride longer.

There are other handlebar bag options available, ask us if there’s one you like, we can probably get it for you and ship it to your home if we don’t already have it in the store.

Navigation

You’ve been used to riding wherever your cycling friends go; you never had to figure out routes for yourself. Uh oh! Time to get a Garmin cycling computer in order to follow routes others have put together, and record your data such as speed, distance, cadence, power. It captures almost every piece of data there is to capture including temperature and calories you burned.

We are offering a pandemic-special! If you order any Garmin computer from us, we’ll have Garmin ship the unit directly to you.

We will talk you through operation of the computer over the phone to get you going with it. (When is the last time an online retailer helped you get going with something you purchased?) Yes, we are asking you to buy what you need for cycling from us because your experience will be better for you if you have our advice, guidance, and help.

Email us with your interest in a GPS computer and we’ll offer advice as to which model is best for you based on the functionality you’re likely to use.

For those of you who think using your phone is a good way to navigate when you’re riding your bike: while this is an option, remember that your cell phone is your communication to help if you have a serious problem. Draining its battery by using it to navigate for you and having it on your handlebars, so that it’s the first thing to break if you crash, are both good reasons to have a separate GPS computer.

Routes

You have a GPS computer but now you need to know where to go! Please email us as we have a vast library of vetted rides. We will share routes appropriate with what you’re looking to experience during your ride.

Additional safety precautions

Related to the Garmin GPS computer, there is a crash-detection feature available which allows the device to call whomever you wish if you stop for too long, or come to a sudden stop an remain stopped.

Your loved ones can also follow your ride by way of your Garmin and phone working together to communicate your location.

Be sure to have a Road ID either on your wrist or on a necklace. These are the places paramedics look for ID. It can take hours for them to dig into your stuff to figure out your identity, along with understanding any of your known medical conditions. Play it safe and wear a Road ID at all times since you could experience a medical emergency while driving or out on a walk - anywhere.

Your ride is longer and temperatures vary

With such light vehicle traffic on the road, doesn’t it seem like the best opportunity ever to ride on the road? The biggest drawback to this is that one day traffic will be back to normal and you’ll have gotten spoiled.

You may be in a position to have time to ride due to not commuting or simply needing a break from being cooped up indoors all day!

Add a BIG saddle bag to your bike that holds everything. This large saddle bag will work equally well on a race bike as a touring bike. The one pictured is made by Ortlieb, we carry a few varieties of these bags.

A large saddle bag enhances your freedom when cycling.

Stuff this bag with everything you could possibly need for the ride. At this time of year, you’re likely to start your ride wearing extra clothes and you’ll want a place to put your jacket or warm stuff as the day warms up. Here is a suggested packing list:

A fully packed large saddle bag is not in the way of the cyclist for small to tall people and contains confidence-inspiring important items for an all-day ride.

• Ride HQ Bug-out Bag (purchase this package from us with choice of bag):

  • Choice of Silca Eolo Wallet $175 or Ortlieb Bike Packing Waterproof Seat-Pack $295

  • 2 x spare tubes

  • Lezyne hand pump

  • Tire levers x 3

  • Patch kit

  • Crank Brothers F15 Mini-tool, includes chainbreaker, allen keys, T25 torx, spoke wrenches, screw drivers & more

  • Food service gloves (keep hands clean if you have to touch something or fix your bike)

  • Sunscreen packet x 3

  • Chamois cream packets x 3

  • CO2 cartridge

  • PDW Shiny Object CO2 Inflator

• Wallet

• Arm warmers

• Neck warmer

• Food

• Rain and/or wind jacket

• Extra pair of gloves (either warmer or cooler than what you’re starting with)

• Spare front and rear light, in case you’re caught out after dark

• Book or eReader - ride your bike, find shade, and read!

Increase your safety with new tires

If it’s been awhile (like 2,000 miles or so long you don’t know how many miles), get new tires immediately! Old tires flat easily. Sometimes when an old tire flats, it does so by way of a sidewall blowout. This is dangerous, don’t risk it.

What do you want in a new set of tires? Assuming you’re primarily a paved road or well-packed dirt-road cyclist, here is a short list:

Fixing a flat on the road. This cyclist appears to have touched her face! We have certainly learned better not to do that now with current events. Greasy faces are certainly not ideal, either!

• Puncture resistant, but not bullet-proof. The most puncture-resistant tires can ride poorly. Ask us and we’ll connect you with a pair of pleasant, yet flat-resistant tires.

• Put 28mm-32mm tires on your road bike for comfort on rough, bumpy roads. No, you won’t feel slow. In fact, you might ride faster since these will increase your confidence.

• 28mm-32mm tires are much less likely to puncture due to hitting a pothole. These are far safer and more stable on rough, wet, or sandy roads. Too many cyclists crash on 23mm tires because of the high pressures in these tires and too little rubber contacting the road. Small bumps in the road will vibrate the bike off the pavement, leading to moments of no contact with the pavement and in these moments, a crash can occur for seemingly no reason.

• Your new tires should be kevlar bead, not steel. Kevlar are much easier to change a flat on and are lighter. Weight of your tires/rims is a good place to be lighter for a better ride.

Opportunities are endless

While dealing with a pandemic is a terrible thing, we have all been given the gift of cycling as an outlet to stay healthy, keep our stress levels in check, balance our emotions, and keep peace at home.

You’ll not just feel better, you’ll get a healthy dose of vitamin D which is known to keep your body healthy. An indoor workout doesn’t have all of the benefits as an outdoor bike ride.

Ride and keep your fitness, or get fitness for the first time in a great while. Once group rides resume, you’ll be able to ride more easily with others, and get to experience the joy of togetherness on group rides. Lean on us to help you get out riding on the road and learn how to love solo cycling!

Winter is Back (finally) - Special Rides and Events for this Long Weekend

Winter took a bit of a hiatus while we had close to 70 degree weather last weekend. We put some special road rides on the calendar and were fortunate to get in some warmer-weather BiFrost Sunday morning mountain bike rides.

However, it’s winter and we love riding in the snow! Snow returns tomorrow evening, Saturday, January 18 & we have a couple of very special rides lined up… read on for complete details. Feel free to share with your friends and invite anyone you think will enjoy the weather. Note the studded tire requirement when there’s snow on the ground - we make this a requirement for your safety and the safety of your riding companions. It is not fun to ride on ice without studs and it’s really, really not fun to crash on ice.

Tour Seven Cycles in Watertown Monday

In addition to these rides for the weekend, note we’re offering a group tour of Seven Cycles in Watertown on Monday, January 20 - this is MLK Day. The tour starts at 11am. Full details are on the Seven Tour Page.

Saturday, January 18 7pm Night Mixed Terrain/Snow Ride

We want to be out riding while it's snowing. Therefore, we're hosting a special edition Night Ride tomorrow evening, Saturday, January 18 from 7-9pm. Doors open at 6:30pm if you want get here early, change clothes, get water, air, etc. Departing from Ride Headquarters (here). All studded tire bikes are welcome and encouraged to attend! Snow shouldn't be too deep when we're out there. Be sure to bring lights and appropriate attire for snow.

This ride will be on trails local to Sherborn, and a few connecting roads. We're expecting a 2-hour ride time and we'll adjust the route to be appropriate for the weather and difficulty of riding.

Pace: We're hosting TWO groups for this ride. There will be a steady moderate group and a funner, slower group. If you're not certain of your off-road pace or if this will be your first night ride, the second "fun" group will be the one to join. We don't recommend this ride if you've never done a mixed terrain ride before. NO ONE gets dropped from the second group.

Equipment: Remember lights and bring more than you think you might need. The cold shortens the life of everything battery operated.

Though this isn't a Full Moon, all of the guidelines and rules for the Full Moon rides applies to this one. Here is the Full Moon Ride Page.

Sunday, January 19 9:00am BiFrost Fat & Mountain Ride - Remote Start in Chelmsford, MA 

Sunday, we're hosting a very special version of the BiFrost ride with a remote start! The ride will be located at Russell Mill in Chelmsford. Weather is predicted for more snow and none of the rain Sherborn is expected to get, so conditions should be pretty good up there.

We're requiring RSVPs for this ride since it's imperative that we know who to expect and if we need to contact anyone for any reason, we'll have your info:

Complete details and RSVP here: https://www.rideshortlist.com/rides-events/bifrost-remote-start-details?rq=bifrost

Wednesday Bike Ride with the Wednesday Wheelers

Yesterday, our curator, Patria, took the lead for a CRW Wednesday Wheeler mid-day ride. This is a ride group that pedals together every Wednesday at 10am all year long.

We were pleased to be able to host the ride yesterday and meet the friendly, enthusiastic riders who showed up for the ride.

The weather forecast showed rain into the morning, so the group met at 11am for pizza - acquired by the pizza shop next door - then had a 12:30pm rollout for 37 gorgeous, fall-foliage-rich road miles.

Here are some photos from the ride, below! Thanks to all who came out, we hope to see you again soon.

Note: we are looking forward to hosting a Winter Riding Clinic in conjunction with CRW - it’s free and open to ALL - Wednesday evening November 13. Be certain to RSVP now so you get follow-up information about the clinic.

We ride all winter and we hope you’ll join us!

Pre-ride obligatory group shot. More joined in after we took this!

Rest stop to take a breath of fresh air on a quiet back road.

Fall foliage and a great group to make it even more colorful on the roads!

Post ride, those with a bit of extra time ate pizza, drank tasty George Howell french press coffee, and took full advantage of the couch!

Get our email newsletter

Our latest email newsletter just went out. Be sure to sign up to receive it so you don’t miss out on cool things that are happening really soon and throughout the winter. Winter is a busy, very fun season for us - be sure to come in and be part of the fun!

Group Tour of Seven Cycles Monday, October 14

Dan C explains how he’s machining the tubeset for Kelly’s race bike.

Join us for a group tour of Seven Cycles this Monday, October 14 at 10:30am!

Seven Cycles is located just down the street from us in Watertown. Seven is a company full of bike building professionals, many of whom have been in the bike building profession for over 30 years. This is the place where great bikes of all kinds come to life and many new innovations in bike building have been developed over the years.

See how Seven designs and builds the best bike frames built to last a lifetime! Children who are able to wear safety glasses are invited to attend as well.

See complete details and RSVP so we can email you directions!

John T inspects a frame, no detail goes overlooked at Seven.

Mixed Terrain at its best with Honey 100 and the Honey Moon 100

The Honey 100 ride and Honey Moon 100 rides were more than an incredibly fun day (or night) on a bike! Riders discovered trails and back roads they’ve never seen before, saw what it is to ride in mixed terrain in this area (very different from the dirt roads of western Massachusetts and Vermont), ate very well, and shared a lot of memorable experiences.

We’d like to thank Honey Bikes for sponsoring this event, give huge and heart-felt appreciation to our fabulous ride leaders who showed groups of riders the way, acknowledge the very hard-working staff who cooked, worked the food stops, managed the myriad riders; we had 120 registered riders who came out! And we’d be remiss to not mention how much work the route designer did to develop and scout the very special, inspired routes.

Check out some great photos of the Honey 100!

Riders preparing for rollout.

Iced mochas fresh from Ride Studio Cafe were available at Ride Headquarters and at every stop on each route.

The route meeting - talking about the flow of the day and getting ready for the good times!

The end of the “funnest” fun ride yielded one group of smiling people!

Regrouping on a scenic knoll.

Loving the beautiful trails.

The mid-ride food stop saw all of the riders during the day and night rides, and it was exceptionally well stocked with all kinds of food.

Food Stop. Look at that spread! The cookies in the foreground were very special and particularly big hits. The pie and ice cream hit the spot, too, as well as the savory sandwiches and chips.

Celebrating the vista at the top of this hill few people see!

Enjoying more great trails. The best pictures couldn’t be taken since it takes two hands to be on the bike through the coolest sections!

After the ride, no one was in a big hurry to leave, it is a day of riding and enjoying the company of old friends and new!

Team Dirty Vertigo challenged all of the other teams to a photo contest.

Team Rippers may or may not have known about the contest, but they were certainly vying for the “most fun” team prize.

Team Hustle Hive took Dirty Vertigo to task on the photo contest. Not only do they color coordinate together, but they match the pavement, too!

The Honey Moon riders weren’t a team, but they certainly rode as if they were! They had a ridiculously good time out there, lighting up the night - and keeping the good people who were supporting the ride on their toes until 10pm. One couple who came out for this ride had an anniversary to celebrate; the Honey Moon ride couldn’t have been more appropriate for them!

Honey Bikes - Inspiration for the Honey 100

This bike is one of the Honey Allroads titanium bikes, a bike that was seen under many riders for the Honey 100 since it’s most perfectly suited to gravel and mixed terrain riding.

Honey Bikes, builder of titanium road bikes, both rim and disc, gravel bikes, fat bikes, mountain bikes and more, created the Honey 100 years ago to show riders the joy of mixed terrain riding in our area. This ride lives on to inspire riders to get off of the main roads, experience trails, see what it’s like to ride in new places, and get to know others who are into adventure riding and experiential riding, as well.

Honey Allroads gravel bikes have been really well received by everyone wanting a super fun gravel/mixed terrain bike, those wanting a bike that does it all throughout the year, and, with a tire swap, they are also being very happily ridden as disc-brake road bikes.

Honey Allroads Titanium Bikes are the ideal gravel bike because they are:

• Lightweight: It is as light or lighter than any bike in its price range.

• Fast: Honey's chainstays are stiff, translating pedaling power directly to the rear wheel.

• Responsive: The bike is designed to do exactly what its rider asks without rider fatigue.

• Sure-footed: Keeping the tires on the ground is the best way to stay upright on loose surfaces. This bike maintains contact with the ground, rider confidence is the result.

• Made in the USA: Honey Bikes are designed and hand-built in Massachusetts.

• Price: is competitive with any other bike built with this same parts kit.

• Titanium: This is the best material for a gravel bike frame. Titanium won't rust or corrode under any conditions. It's super durable for rough terrain and treatment.

• Durable: Gravel bikes experience more stress and frame-testing situations such as rocks being flung up onto the frame and hitting potholes at speed than road bikes.The parts kit is curated for light-weight durability.

• It fits and feels great: A Professional Bike fitting is included in the price of the bike.

• Backed by us and our Professional Mechanics: 1 year of labor is included with your bike purchase.

Feedback from Honey Allroads titanium riders has been overwhelmingly positive, with people finding they are doing so much more on their bikes than they ever thought possible, relishing the ride qualities of the well-designed and hand-built titanium frames, and realizing just how nice it is to be able to ride hard and not worry about the bike.

Music Festival at Ride Headquarters - Saturday, August 31

We are really excited to announce that Ride Headquarters is hosting the BONYCH Music Festival on Saturday, August 31.  Starting at 2 pm we’ll get the grill going for an epic BBQ.  Music from a five exceptional artists hailing from Boston, New York and Chicago will begin at 3 pm.

The musicians offer a wide range of creative aesthetics found in contemporary music, from purely improvised to compositionally based, from acoustic to completely electronic, represented by four sets of musicians. 

The musicians include the pioneering and legendary Ikue Mori, MacArthur prize winner Ken Vandermark, Chicago's Mars William and Steve Marquette, and Boston stalwart drummer Curt Newton.

The BONYCH Music Festival coincides with a stateside tour for Cinghiale and Steve Marquette, and will be the first performance by Ikue Mori in the Boston area in years. This will also be the first collaboration between Mori, Vandermark, and Newton.

BONYCH ticket donations are only $20 and include both the music and all day BBQ, something we know you won’t want to miss! Seating is limited.

Order tickets now!

Sunday: Ride with Pro Mountain Biker, Kelly Catale

This Sunday morning, June 22, come out to ride with Kelly Catale, professional mountain bike racer and sponsored Seven Cycles' athlete. The ride is a fun, a moderate pace, meant to allow everyone to ride together with frequent regroups and opportunities for Kelly to share skills riding advice real-time on the trails. Come out to meet other mountain bike riders, learn from Kelly, and see the awesome mountain bike building technology Seven is employing in their dual suspension and hard-tail mountain bike designs.

Kelly Catale races at the highest levels across the U.S. and finishes on the top of the podium in New England mountain bike races. Here she's flying on her Seven Cycles KellCat at the Sea Otter Classic.

Come out to enjoy a very special day of mountain biking!

• Ride with Kelly and other mountain bikers

• Learn more about mountain biking via a mini-skills clinic during the ride

• Enjoy after-ride food and beverages

• Hear more about pro mountain biking and Kelly’s very special bike during an after-ride Q&A session with Kelly

• Get a discount voucher good toward the purchase of any Seven dual suspension mountain bike from Kelly

Details

Every Sunday morning we host a mountain bike ride here at Ride Headquarters. This event is being run in conjunction with that ride. Details of how the ride is run, equipment expectations, and the waiver which must be filled out and signed prior to joining in the ride are on the Ride Page.

Schedule for Sunday

8:30am - Store opens for riders

9:00am - Ride rolls out, store closed until ride returns

~11:30am - Ride returns, riders clean up & get food

11:45am - Q&A Session in-store with Kelly

---

Please RSVP so we know to expect you!

Come Out to Ride! Weekend Rides Galore May 25-26

We’re looking forward to a beautiful weekend absolutely full of very fun bike riding! Here is what we have running from here over the weekend:

Saturday, May 25:

• Doors open 7:45am, 8am rollout: 37-mile Road Ride, Sunshine Express - Two speeds: 15-16 mph and 17-18mph

• 11am rollout: 2-2.5 hours, Mixed Terrain Ride, Beowulf Mixed Terrain - Ability level: Moderate, comfortable on trails, average around 16mph on roads, trail average speeds are much lower

• 12pm rollout: 2 hours, The Gravel Ride Mixed Terrain- Ability level: New to trails, experienced on road bikes. This is the ride for your friends who don’t want to ride off pavement. Learn how to enjoy riding trails, dirt, around rocks, over roots.

Sunday, May 26:

• Doors open at 8:30am for riders, 9am rollout: 2.5 hour Mountain Bike Ride - Ability Level: Fun-Moderate. For riders comfortable on trails but who aren’t trying to race the ride. No one gets dropped, all have fun. Mountain and fat bikes are appropriate for this ride.

Monday, May 27: We are open Mondays except holidays. We’re closed for Memorial Day.

Be advised OUR Red REFRIGERATOR is FULL of cold drinks, Ride Studio Cafe Cold Brew, and ice cream from Whole Foods is in the freezer.

Stop by on your ride for fresh, cold water, ice, hot coffee, iced coffee, bathrooms, a relaxing break, ride nutrition, air for your tires, lube for your chain…

Email us if you want to demo ride a stock Honey bike or custom Seven Cycles bike!

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We have announced Adventure 500 dates - starting this month!

New bike announcements including the Seven dual suspension custom titanium mountain bike.

The Sunshine Express is tomorrow morning at 8am.

Read and enjoy!

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Top Eight Ways to Improve Your Gravel Riding

Top Eight Ways to Improve Your Gravel Riding

Rasputitsa is the hallmark event of spring gravel cycling. Considering the numbers of people who pilgrimaged to the ride this past weekend, it’s obvious whatever weather and conditions, people are excited to join their friends, face a challenging course, and put their bodies and bikes to the test.

We were pleased to see so many of our riders out there conquering the course and the day. We enjoy hearing your stories and experiences.

Do you hear yourself saying any of these things? We have answers to what will make your gravel cycling life significantly better:

• "The climbs were hard at Rasputitsa, but I was frightened on the descents." - We discuss how not to fear descents.

• “My back hurt during the ride and reminded me of the ride well after it was over.” - Your body should only hurt in your muscles. Other pain on the bike shouldn’t exist.

• “I was beaten up so badly, I didn't want to ride the next day.“ - It’s possible to have your bike roll over the bumps rather than jar you over bumps. You should want to get right back on your bike after a long, hard ride.

Read on to understand more on how to make your gravel riding significantly better than it already is…

Seven Cycles Wins Best Road Bike, Best Gravel Bike, and takes home other top honors at NAHBS

We are thrilled to parter with Seven Cycles, they are an incredibly thoughtful, quality-first company who builds every single frame for each rider. Seven is located in Watertown, MA and they build the best bikes in the world. This past weekend, Seven Cycles attended NAHBS (North American Handmade Bicycle Show) and took many awards home. Hundreds of bikes are judged at the show so to take home both Best Road Bike and Best Gravel bike and being a dual-suspension mountain bike finalist with their new-to-the-world dual-suspension bike (among other finalist categories) is a next-level accomplishment and shows the depth of Seven’s design and bike building expertise.

This is the Seven Cycles Ultimate Axiom Disc award-winning road bike! See it on Seven Cycles’ website.

To celebrate Seven Cycles winning Best Road Bike, if you order a Seven Road or Gravel Bike between now and March 31, we are offering you a free headset upgrade to Chris King, a color upgrade on your wheelset (if you choose Industry Nine wheels or another brand that offers color choices), a free year of service on your bike including the first Professional tune-up, and a free professional fitting. This is a package worth over $1,100.

Email us at connect@rideheadquarters.com for more information and to set up a demo ride of *the* NAHBS winning road bike or any of the awesome Seven Cycles bikes (road, gravel, mountain bike or any kind of bike)!

News January 26 - Special Night Ride! Read Newsletter for More...

With winter finally arriving, we’ve been busier than ever between enjoying the riding that comes with snowy, icy trails and working on new bikes for people who are excited to take their cycling to a new level this spring.

Winter is one of our favorite times to ride, so we’ve added special rides, including the ride tonight at 7pm followed by a fire, hot drinks, s’mores, baked apples, and more!

The BiFrost ride always runs, and when trails are frozen or snowy, we are out there on a Sunday morning 9am Adventure. Most of our winter trail rides require studded tires for fun on the ice (read: important for your safety).

Check out our latest newsletter full of cool stuff upcoming and be sure you sign up to be on the email list if you aren’t receiving it already.  

https://mailchi.mp/rideheadquarters/weekend-rides-happening-studded-tires-winter-riding-to-anxiously-anticipate-1797325?e=49ffb7ab78